Tag Archives: FLSA for Fire Departments

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has rejected an appeal filed by the City of New York following a 2019 jury verdict that awarded almost $18 million in unpaid wages, overtime, and damages to a class of more than 2,500 FDNY EMTs and paramedics. This most recent decision “might” signal an end to this long and ...

Tensions between firefighters and their fire chief are running high in Jackson, Mississippi over firefighter pay and the chief’s newly proposed budget. The chief’s proposed budget, which does not include any pay raises for city firefighters has the firefighters seeing red. As a result, Jackson firefighters are pushing back against their fire chief and requesting a vote of “no confidence” ...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a lone Los Angeles firefighter, on behalf of himself and “other similarly situated individuals” [a.k.a. other firefighters] for unpaid overtime while attending the county’s fire academy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in state court only to be moved to federal court in July 2021, contained allegations ...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has ordered the City of Gary, Indiana to pay 154 firefighters and 18 paramedics a total of $672,000 in back overtime wages. The order follows a DOL investigation into the city’s pay practices related to firefighter and medic pay. According to the DOL, the city failed to pay firefighters overtime for all hours worked ...

Ten Cobb County, Georgia battalion chiefs have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county has failed to pay them overtime as required by federal law. More specifically, the battalion chiefs claim the county misclassified them as overtime exempt “white collar” employees in violation of the FLSA. Quoting from the complaint: Within the last three years, and continuing to date, while ...

The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma is one step closer to resolving an FLSA lawsuit filed by nearly 500 Tulsa firefighters. This past Wednesday, the Tulsa City Council approved a settlement in the amount of $1,060,000. The firefighter’s complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in February 2022, contained several allegations related ...

My friend and colleague Curt Varone recently posted a story on his Fire Law Blog entitled, “Part-Time Fire Chiefs and Compensation.” The post answered a burning question that Curt received on whether part-time fire chiefs can be classified as overtime exempt executive employees. Curt did a great job answering that question and providing some alternative options for compensating part-time fire ...

In this Fire Law VLOG, Curt Varone and Bill Maccarone discuss three recent settlements involving high-ranking fire officers and their entitlement to FLSA overtime. What makes a high-level fire officer an overtime exempt executive or administrative employee under the FLSA? The FLSA and Department of Labor (DOL) regulations contain a long list of requirements necessary to classify any employee as ...

The City of Encinitas, California is one step closer to resolving an FLSA overtime lawsuit filed by four current and former fire department battalion chiefs. Lawyers representing the city and the battalion chiefs filed a joint motion in federal court last week to approve a settlement reached following an April 2022 lawsuit. The settlement requires the city pay the battalion ...

The City of Selma, Alabama has reached an undisclosed “confidential” settlement with three fire department assistant fire marshals/fire investigators following their 2021 lawsuit for unpaid overtime, breach of contract, and FLSA retaliation. The plaintiffs’ complaint set forth three basic allegations. First, the plaintiffs claim the city misclassified them as overtime exempt employees in violation of the FLSA. Second, the city ...