Tag Archives: hours worked

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a non-firefighting paramedic and a union representative in an urban city. The city allows firefighters to freely substitute with each other for their assigned shifts. We would like to receive the same opportunities as firefighters regarding substitutions. Unfortunately, the city’s HR director believes the FLSA limits shift substitutions to firefighters and police officers. As a ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the assistant chief for a mid-sized full-time paid fire department. The department is sending two fire officers out-of-state to inspect a new piece of fire apparatus we are purchasing. The apparatus factory is about two hours away by airplane or 6 hours by car. One of the officers wants to leave a day early and ...

Three flight paramedics and one flight nurse have filed an FLSA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, against their employer, Air Methods Corporation. The suit alleges Air Methods improperly deducts sleep time from employees hours worked in an effort to evade FLSA overtime requirements. While this suit only includes four plaintiffs at this time, attorneys ...

A group of fifteen firefighters and their local union, are suing the Town of Chesterton, Indiana, over unpaid overtime that dates back almost 10 years. The suit, which was filed on February 16, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana alleges the town has “willingly, deliberately and intentionally refused to pay Chesterton Firefighters for time and ...

A Virginia emergency medical technician (EMT) has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his employer, Craig County, Virginia failed to pay he and other EMTs properly, in violation of the FLSA. Timothy Mason Kimble, an EMT for the county since 2016, makes two basic allegations on behalf of himself and other “similarly situated” individuals [other EMTs that have yet to join ...

A New York EMT is suing his employer for violations of both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York wage and hour laws. Ronald Tappen, an EMT for the Lindenhurst Fire Department filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on January 22. Tappen alleges the town failed to pay him ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a fire chief. I recently had a lieutenant work past the end of his shift and submit an overtime request without authorization. I denied his request for overtime and reminded him that all non-emergency overtime must be pre-approved in advance. Now, the union has filed a grievance and the lieutenant is saying he may institute ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a city HR manager. One of our firefighters is out of work with a long-term illness. Unfortunately, this firefighter has exhausted all of his sick time. In response other firefighters have been working as substitutes for his assigned shifts. In theory, we have no issues with this practice since firefighters frequently substitute for each other’s ...

The City of Fayetteville, Tennessee has paid twenty-three current and former city firefighters a total of $92,515 after city officials discovered errors in the way overtime was calculated. City officials acknowledged a “discrepancy” related to firefighter overtime back in August 2018. It appears the city moved quickly to resolve the issue and avoided a protracted and often costly legal battle ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I recently read that a small village outside of Chicago decided to privatize its fire service in an effort to reduce costs. In particular village leaders claimed the overtime obligations for village firefighters was too high and by privatizing fire services the village would save significant money while maintaining the same daily staffing. I would think private ...