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 ...
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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 »OK City Settles FLSA Suit with Firefighters
The City of Chickasha, Oklahoma and has settled an FLSA lawsuit with 31 city firefighters for almost $150,000. The settlement stems from a December 2020 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. The firefighters alleged the city failed to include longevity pay in their regular rate of pay. The FLSA requires wage augments, like ...
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 »“Use It, or Lose It” Policy Not an Option for FLSA Comp Time
Today’s FLSA Question: I am a non-exempt battalion chief for a municipal fire department. Our department requires all non-exempt chief officers, like myself receive FLSA comp time in lieu of FLSA overtime. Recently, the city changed some comp time policies. First, the maximum number of comp time hours an employee can accrue is now capped at 300 hours. Previously, we ...
Read More »CA Fire District Settles FLSA Regular Rate Lawsuit with Firefighters
The Borrego Springs Fire Protection District (District) has reached a settlement with twenty-five firefighters following an FLSA lawsuit filed in May 2020. The firefighters claimed the District failed to include money paid directly to firefighters in lieu of employer sponsored medical benefits, paramedic certification, and holiday in lieu pay in their regular rate of pay. The terms of the settlement ...
Read More »FLSA for Fire Departments – Update
The Fire Law Group is pleased to announce a series of advanced live three-hour webinars dedicated to the most important and challenging FLSA wage and hour issues impacting fire departments, firefighters, and other public safety professionals today. The first is scheduled for Wednesday, October 20, 2021 and is entitled: Calculating Regular Rate for Firefighters and other First Responders. This program ...
Read More »Federal Correctional Employees File Lawsuit Over Hazardous Duty Pay
A group of 225 current and former federal correctional employees filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to pay them required hazardous duty pay and environmental differential pay. Additionally, the plaintiffs also allege violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The plaintiffs are all current and former employees at the Allenwood Federal ...
Read More »Judge Rules that Kansas City Firefighters’ FLSA Lawsuit can Continue
A federal magistrate Judge has ruled that an FLSA overtime lawsuit brought by more than 450 Kansas City, Missouri firefighters can continue as a collective action. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2019 by only two city firefighters, had grown to include more than 450 total firefighters. The city argued the firefighters lacked a “common interest” and as a ...
Read More »Failure to Include Cash In-lieu Payments in Regular Rate Costs A California City More than $1.2 Million
The City of Davis, California recently settled an FLSA lawsuit filed by a small group of city firefighters for a total of $1,268,912. The lawsuit, which was filed on July 26, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, was centered around whether payments made directly to firefighters in lieu of receiving employer sponsored medical benefits ...
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