Tag Archives: FLSA

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 ...

Keith Faber, the State of Ohio’s Chief Auditor, has demanded the former Union City Fire Chief and two of her subordinates (one of which is the chief’s husband) repay more than $75,000 following allegations of falsified “payroll time sheets.” Pamela Idle, the former chief of the Union City Fire Department, former firefighters Craig Idle (Chief Idle’s husband) and Brian Stump ...

An unusual battle between an independent volunteer fire company and a rural New England town has resulted in the fire company filing a lawsuit against the town. In a March 31 lawsuit—filed in New London Superior Court—the Gardner Lake Volunteer Fire Company alleges the Town of Salem, CT is unlawfully withholding almost $28,000 earmarked for volunteer firefighter stipends from the ...

The Birmingham, Alabama City Council has approved a temporary 5 percent pay increase, or “hazard pay” for approximately 2,000 essential city workers. The increase, which is expected to cost the city approximately $500,000, is designed to help firefighters and other essential city workers operating on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to firefighters, police officers and correctional ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am an administrative assistant for a small municipal fire department. My job is primarily related to scheduling inspections, handling public information requests, ordering supplies, and handling payroll for our full-time and part-time paid staff. Our organization has a mixture of full-time, part-time and volunteer firefighters. The volunteers do not receive any money for serving as volunteers, ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I was a paramedic for a local fire department. The department has a policy that requires medics brief each other face-to-face at the beginning and end of each 12-hour shift. Medics must fill each other in on the calls that were run, medications used and replaced, account for on-board narcotics, computer, and radio equipment. This process takes ...

Should workers’ compensation cover police and firefighters that contract the coronavirus? Pennsylvania first responders think that it should…And are trying to do something about it. The Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has drafted legislation—which has yet to find a sponsor in the Pennsylvania legislature—that would include coronavirus in a list of “specific occupational illnesses covered under the Workers’ Compensation Act for first responders.”

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a city finance director responsible for paying our city’s public safety workers. The fire chief recently approached me with an interesting idea for new firefighters. During the recession the city lowered the starting wages for fire department employees significantly. This has impacted our ability to recruit and retain rookie firefighters. The chief would like to ...

The City of Cleveland, OH has agreed to pay over $619,322 to settle a 2018 lawsuit filed by a lone EMT alleging the city violated the FLSA and Ohio state law. The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in November 2018, contained rather straight-forward allegations of underpaid overtime. Specifically, EMS Captain Margerita ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I recently accepted a job as fire chief in a small combination fire department. We have a great mix of full-time, part-time, and paid-on-call firefighters. This department is much smaller than my previous employer and they do things a little differently. I am concerned about the way we pay our non-firefighter medics. Historically, the department hired from ...