Today’s FLSA Question: I have been a part-time firefighter working for a small non-union municipal fire department for more than 5 years. My department augments full-time staff with part-timers, like myself. Historically, working as a part-time firefighter was the best way to get a job as a full-time firefighter. Up until recently, the department’s part-time firefighters were limited to a ...
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Firefighters Paid on a Salary Basis, Overtime, and the FLSA
Today’s FLSA Question: I am a rookie firefighter working for a rural county fire department. I am confused about the way firefighters in my fire department are compensated. We are paid a bi-weekly salary. However, we also receive FLSA overtime pay for all hours worked over 106 every two weeks. I am confused. I thought that being paid a salary ...
Read More »DOL Issues New Guidance Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic Likely to Impact Firefighters, EMTs, and Other Essential Public Safety Personnel – Part I – Employer Mandated Temperature Checks
This is the first of several posts dedicated to new guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on wage and hour issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the compensability of certain health related job requirements and activities. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division issued this guidance on April 26, 2021 as part of a new initiative entitled ...
Read More »DOL Makes FLSA Mistakes More Costly for Employers
On April 9, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—the arm of the DOL responsible for enforcing the FLSA—officially rescinded a controversial employer-friendly enforcement practice implemented less than a year ago. As a general rule, the FLSA requires liquidated damages be assessed after finding an employer violated the Act’s minimum wage or overtime requirements. Liquidated ...
Read More »Alabama Fire Inspectors File FLSA Overtime and Retaliation Lawsuit
The City of Selma, Alabama is the latest city facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by city firefighters. Three Assistant Fire Marshals/Fire Inspectors filed the suit, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, on April 19, 2021. Richard C. Byrd, Willie J. Mason Jr., and Aeneas L. Pettway allege that the city failed to pay them overtime ...
Read More »Judge Rules that Kansas City Firefighters’ FLSA Lawsuit can Continue
A federal magistrate Judge has ruled that an FLSA overtime lawsuit brought by more than 450 Kansas City, Missouri firefighters can continue as a collective action. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2019 by only two city firefighters, had grown to include more than 450 total firefighters. The city argued the firefighters lacked a “common interest” and as a ...
Read More »Maryland Fire Investigators and County Settle FLSA Lawsuit
A group of fire investigators from the Prince George’s County Fire Department have settled an overtime lawsuit they filed last summer. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on June 18, 2020, on behalf of fourteen county fire investigators, alleged the county’s pay practices violated the FLSA. Specifically, the investigators claimed the county improperly classified them as §207(k) firefighters. ...
Read More »DOL Update 2021 – New Presidential Administration Brings Immediate Changes to DOL Policy and Opinion
In this VLOG, Curt Varone and I discuss several recent changes to DOL policy and opinions following President Biden’s inauguration. These changes are likely the first of many that we will be seeing in the near future. For more on the FLSA and how it applies to firefighters and other first responders, please consider joining us at one of the ...
Read More »Study Finds Some Tennessee Firefighters Paid Less than Federal Poverty Rate
The City of Chattanooga is facing criticism over firefighter pay. The criticism, leveled by local union officials, follows a 2019 payroll study in conjunction with recent claims made by city administrators’ that ALL city employees will be paid above the “Federal Poverty Rate.” First, a 2019 payroll study found Chattanooga firefighters earn significantly less than other area firefighters. The starting ...
Read More »Firefighters, Daylight Savings Time, and the FLSA
Does your state participate in daylight savings time? Most likely, you answered yes to this question. Now, in addition to changing the batteries on your smoke and CO detectors, have you considered how daylights savings time may impact a firefighter’s hours worked? Since it is getting to be that time of year again, here is a post from FirefighterOvertime.org dating ...
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