Tag Archives: fire chief

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a career firefighter. The city provides a $90,000 life insurance policy for all firefighters. I noticed the city included a portion of the cost of the insurance policy as taxable income in my last paycheck of 2019. I asked our finance department for an explanation. I was told the IRS requires some fringe benefits, like ...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has ordered the City of Highland Park, Michigan to pay four current city employees $49,181 in back wages and another $1,368 in penalties following an investigation into the city’s pay policies. The investigation found violations in the way the city counted hours worked for certain city employees. Specifically, four city employees that work as ...

The Borrego Springs Fire Protection District (District) is the latest California fire department facing an FLSA lawsuit. A group of seventeen firefighters filed the suit last month, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleging the district failed to include all remuneration in the firefighters’ regular rate of pay. Specifically, the firefighters allege the district did ...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced a significant modification to an existing overtime rule for employees that work fluctuating hours from week to week. As a result, many first responders, including firefighters may find less money in their paychecks in the coming months. The new rule, set to take effect in July, alters the current stringent requirements necessary ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a municipal fire chief. In response to the current COVID-19 pandemic our city passed an ordinance providing rank-and-file city firefighters with hazard pay. This hazard pay is above and beyond the firefighters’ normal wages and is payable for every hour worked. In fact, the city even made the payment retroactive to include the last two ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I work as an administrative assistant for a small municipal fire department. City hall issued a memo last month eliminating non-essential overtime across all city departments. Our fire chief requested an exception from this prohibition for me, since our office is already shorthanded. City hall responded that as an administrative employee, I could agree to accept comp ...

Keith Faber, the State of Ohio’s Chief Auditor, has demanded the former Union City Fire Chief and two of her subordinates (one of which is the chief’s husband) repay more than $75,000 following allegations of falsified “payroll time sheets.” Pamela Idle, the former chief of the Union City Fire Department, former firefighters Craig Idle (Chief Idle’s husband) and Brian Stump ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I was a paramedic for a local fire department. The department has a policy that requires medics brief each other face-to-face at the beginning and end of each 12-hour shift. Medics must fill each other in on the calls that were run, medications used and replaced, account for on-board narcotics, computer, and radio equipment. This process takes ...

Should workers’ compensation cover police and firefighters that contract the coronavirus? Pennsylvania first responders think that it should…And are trying to do something about it. The Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has drafted legislation—which has yet to find a sponsor in the Pennsylvania legislature—that would include coronavirus in a list of “specific occupational illnesses covered under the Workers’ Compensation Act for first responders.”

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a city finance director responsible for paying our city’s public safety workers. The fire chief recently approached me with an interesting idea for new firefighters. During the recession the city lowered the starting wages for fire department employees significantly. This has impacted our ability to recruit and retain rookie firefighters. The chief would like to ...