Firefighters from Georgetown County, South Carolina are again attempting to raise public awareness regarding the ongoing critical firefighter and paramedic staffing shortage within the county. The Georgetown Professional Firefighters Association, Local 4526, has posted a three-page letter on its Facebook page that provides examples of how the “critical staffing shortage” is impacting the firefighters ability to serve the community. According ...
Read More »Tag Archives: FLSA for Fire Departments
Florida County and Union Agree to Increase New Firefighter Pay by 20 Percent
Officials from Escambia County, Florida, and the county’s firefighter’s union have agreed to a new three-year collective bargaining agreement that includes a department-wide wage adjustment for all county firefighters. The new contract requires firefighters receive pay raises ranging from two to twenty percent. According to the president of the Escambia Professional Firefighters Association, Lt. Nick Gradia, Escambia’s pay scales had ...
Read More »Another FLSA Lawsuit filed by FDNY EMS Workers
The City of New York is once again facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by FDNY Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers. In a 15-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 16, 2021, three named plaintiffs claim the City of New York is systematically underpaying its EMS workers. Specifically, the complaint alleges ...
Read More »Illinois Firefighters File FLSA Suit
A group of four firefighters have filed a lawsuit, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging their employer, the Village of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, underpaid them for overnight shifts and failed to pay overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law. The Village of Winthrop Harbor is a ...
Read More »Federal Judge Dismisses FDNY’s Latest Hail Mary Attempt to Avoid Paying EMTs Millions in Unpaid Overtime, Damages, and Attorneys’ Fees
An FLSA lawsuit filed by more than 2,500 FDNY EMTs and Paramedics back in 2013 is inching towards a conclusion after a federal judge dismissed the city’s most recent attempt for a new trial last week. This latest decision comes on the heels of a 2019 trial in which a jury awarded the FDNY EMTs and medics over $14 million ...
Read More »NYC Settles FLSA Lawsuit with Four FDNY Motor Vehicle Operators for more than $400K
The City of New York has agreed to pay four current and former FDNY Motor Vehicle Operators (MVOs) and their attorneys a total of $429,901.18 to settle an unpaid overtime lawsuit. The MVOs, filed the lawsuit in June 2019, alleging the city failed to pay them for required pre-and-post shift activities (i.e., off-the-clock work), time spent working during unpaid meal ...
Read More »FLSA Mistakes Do Not Have To Be Costly
Today’s FLSA Question: I am a new fire chief for a mid-sized full-time paid fire department. Our firefighters work a 48/96 schedule with a 24-day work period. Additionally, we provide our firefighters with 12 (24-hour) Kelly Days every year. However, we do not assign a Kelly Day every work period. Instead, we allow our firefighters to use their 12-Kelly Days ...
Read More »DOL Finds Illinois Police Dept. Failed to Pay OT as Required by the FLSA
Following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division, the City of East St. Louis, Illinois has been ordered to pay almost $160,000 in back wages and penalties to a total of 19 city police officers. The DOL investigation uncovered several FLSA violations. In particular, the DOL found that the city failed to pay police ...
Read More »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 »Guaranteed Overtime, Pay Smoothing, and the FLSA
Today’s FLSA Question: I am a firefighter for a city fire department. We have a total of 33 line firefighters and officers assigned to 2 stations on 3 shifts. We work 24 hours on duty, followed by 48 hours off-duty. Our department uses a 14-day work period and we receive overtime for all additional hours worked outside of our normally ...
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