Tag Archives: first responder regulations

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 ...

Montgomery County, Tennessee has reached a settlement with two supervisory paramedics following a 2019 FLSA lawsuit for unpaid overtime. Emergency Medical Services Captain Gary Perry initially filed the lawsuit, on October 28, 2019. Perry’s main allegation related to the county’s failure to pay him and other EMS Captains overtime as required by the FLSA. Perry also claimed the county misclassified ...

Retired First Deputy Fire Chief Gary Mogel has filed an FLSA lawsuit against his former employer, the City of Reading, Pennsylvania alleging the city violated the FLSA by failing to pay fire department shift commanders any overtime. This lawsuit is the latest of several recent lawsuits involving fire department shift commanders challenging their employer’s classification as “white-collar” overtime exempt employees. ...

The Cobb County Georgia Fire Department is facing a second lawsuit in as many years for allegedly violating the FLSA. David Simister, a fire captain for Cobb County Fire filed this second suit, on behalf of himself and “other similarly situated individuals,” last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Simister claims the county’s pay ...

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 ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief of a mid-sized municipal fire department. The most recent collective bargaining agreement with our firefighters contains an incentive plan designed to curb sick leave abuse. Firefighters and officers that use less than 72 hours of sick leave during a calendar year receive an additional 24 hours of paid leave during the following ...

The Newton County Fire Department has reached a settlement with three battalion chiefs (BCs) following a 2019 lawsuit over FLSA overtime. The three BCs filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in November 2019. The three alleged the county improperly reclassified BCs from overtime eligible first responders to overtime exempt employees in July 2018. ...

Two Storey County, Nevada firefighters have filed an FLSA suit against their employer, the Storey County Fire Protection District. The pair claim the district fails to pay them, and other similarly situated firefighters, overtime as required by the FLSA. Specifically, firefighters Victor Yohey and Chris Tillisch allege the district has a practice of not paying firefighters any FLSA overtime for ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the Fire Marshal for a mid-sized fire department. The town considers my position overtime exempt. I have been pressing town hall for an explanation of why my position is classified this way. The HR Director initially told me I was an overtime exempt executive employee. However, I informed him that exempt executives must supervise other ...

The Department of Labor (DOL) will be implementing several important updates to regulations related to the FLSA over the next few weeks. These updates include an increase in the minimum salary required for overtime exempt “white-collar” employees and critical changes to DOL regulations related to the regular rate of pay. It would be nearly impossible to properly address these changes ...