Tag Archives: mandatory overtime

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” ...

An interesting story from “across the pond” sheds light on what may at times seem like a local issue for many fire service leaders across the United States. According to Newstalk, an online news service based out of Dublin, Ireland, the Dublin Fire Brigade is suffering from severe understaffing and an unreasonable reliance on firefighter overtime. The Dublin Fire Brigade ...

The Portland Firefighters’ Association, IAFF Local 43, is requesting that the City of Portland, Oregon increase firefighter overtime to a double time rate instead of the traditional time and one-half rate due to chronic staffing shortages and an excessive amount of mandatory overtime. According to both the city and the union, firefighters face progressive discipline if they refuse to work ...

A group of four former Destin, Florida firefighters filed an FLSA lawsuit earlier this week alleging that their former employer, The Destin Fire Control District [District] failed to pay them for hours spent attending work-related training. Former Destin firefighters David Garner, Brian Ostos, Alejandro Osorio, and Joseph Quinn filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief of a full-time paid municipal fire department. Several of our firefighters and officers have been voluntarily attending on-campus classes in several different programs offered through the National Fire Academy (NFA). As a policy, the department provides these members with paid time off (without using vacation time or requiring shift trades) for all ...

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 ...

How many consecutive hours should an EMT/paramedic be required to work? That is the question EMS workers from Beaufort County, South Carolina are raising following months of excessive mandatory overtime. According to The Island Packet, Beaufort County EMS workers have a long history of working significant amounts of overtime. In fact, between 2015 and 2020 the county projected overtime costs ...