Tag Archives: first responders

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the chief of a small but increasingly busy volunteer fire and EMS department. Our volunteers are paid $12 per hour when responding to calls. I was picking up the firefighters’ 1099s last month, and the accountant asked me a question about “our employees.” This caught me by surprise. I told her we have volunteers, not ...

The City of Richmond, Virginia, has agreed to pay approximately $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by four police officers regarding unpaid overtime. The lawsuit, which was filed in August of 2017, claimed the city failed to pay overtime to officers assigned to the former mayor’s private security detail. The officers claimed the city unilaterally stopped paying overtime for hours ...

Adolfo Jimenez, a former police officer for the City of Parlier, California, has filed a federal law suit in the Eastern District of California, claiming the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The suit alleges the city failed to adequately compensate Jimenez for off-the-clock work related to the care, training, maintenance, and transport of his police work dog. ...

The FLSA requires any public agency electing to utilize the §207(k) partial overtime exemption for police officers and firefighters establish a work period. In other words, to avoid paying overtime to firefighters and police officers after they work 40 hours every 7 days, the public agency needs to establish a qualifying work period. While establishing a work period may not ...

The Summerville Fire and Rescue Department in Summerville, South Carolina is the latest fire department to move away from paying its firefighters under the fluctuating workweek (FWW) method of overtime compensation. Summerville firefighters will no longer receive salary-based pay under the FWW and instead will be compensated by the hour. The move is expected to cost the city an additional ...

Today’s FLSA Question: Our employment contract contains a provision entitled “annual vacation buy-back,” which allows firefighters to cash out up to 100 hours of unused vacation hours annually. The hours are paid at the firefighter’s hourly rate at the time of buy-back. Does this “buy-back” money for unused vacation time need to be included in the firefighter’s regular rate? Excellent ...

Former Killian, Louisiana, Police Chief Dennis Hill has been indicted on felony malfeasance charges for allegedly requesting payments for overtime he never worked. The felony charge comes on the heels of an investigation conducted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor into the former chief’s actions. Despite numerous claims of alleged criminal conduct within the auditor’s report, the grand jury only indicted ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the HR director for a small city. Before taking this job I worked for many years as an HR manager in the private sector. I am struggling with some of the unique components of the FLSA that only apply to public sector workers. I am especially concerned about some of the practices within the fire ...

In an unusual decision from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, a former fire investigator for the Columbus Consolidated Government Fire and EMS Department (CCG Fire & EMS) was denied overtime pay under a very limited and unique provision of the FLSA. It is too soon to know if the former investigator will appeal. However, there ...

The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has reached an agreement with the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), Local 244, which represents the city’s firefighters for a one-time $8 million payment to settle an almost decade long pay dispute. In 2008, the city and firefighters entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in which the city promised to provide a ...