Tag Archives: firefighters

The Town Council in Dyer, Indiana recently passed a temporary ordinance related to compensating town employees that also serve as paid-on-call firefighters. The ordinance, which was unanimously passed by the council, mandates the town set the overtime rate for town employees that also serve as paid-on-call firefighters, at time and one-half of the “highest regular hourly rate of pay” earned ...

The City of Chickasha, Oklahoma is facing a lawsuit filed by city firefighters for unpaid overtime. A group of thirty-one, current and former Chickasha firefighters filed the lawsuit in federal court earlier this month. Specifically, the firefighters allege the city failed to include contractually guaranteed longevity payments in their regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. As a ...

How important is establishing a qualifying work period for §207(k) firefighters? Officials from the Village of Highland Hills, a small suburb outside of Cleveland, found out this past week. In a succinct easy to read six-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin, found that the village had not established a work period and was therefore unable to claim ...

This is the second of several posts dedicated to answering questions asked by attendees at the recent FLSA for Fire Departments live webinar. If you have questions like this, please consider attending the next live webinar in February 2021. FLSA Question: We require mandatory weekly COVID tests for all of our firefighters. We pay off-duty firefighters four hours of overtime ...

In an important and highly anticipated decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a 2019 federal court decision denying FLSA overtime for seven Chesapeake, Virginia Battalion Chiefs without the need of a trial. While this decision, which was handed down unanimously by a three-judge panel last Friday, only applies to a small handful of battalion ...

A small group of current and former EMS Captains for the City of Virginia Beach’s Emergency Medical Services Department have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the city’s pay practices violate both the FLSA and Virginia state law. According to the medics’ complaint, which was filed earlier this week in federal court, the city improperly classifies EMS Captains as overtime exempt ...

This is the first of several posts dedicated to answering questions asked by attendees at the recent FLSA for Fire Departments live webinar. If you have questions like this, please consider attending the next live webinar in February 2021. FLSA Question: Can uniform allowances paid to police officers and firefighters be excluded from the regular rate of pay? Does the ...

In this Vlog, Curt Varone and I discuss a recent federal court decision that invalidated one Texas fire departments use of the FLSA’s §207(k) partial overtime exemption for firefighter/medics assigned to EMS companies. Here is more on this important ruling. Ruling in FF/Medics’ FLSA Overtime Lawsuit Stresses Importance of FD Policies and Procedures

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 ...

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 ...