Tag Archives: regular rate

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 ...

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 ...

On April 9, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—the arm of the DOL responsible for enforcing the FLSA—officially rescinded a controversial employer-friendly enforcement practice implemented less than a year ago. As a general rule, the FLSA requires liquidated damages be assessed after finding an employer violated the Act’s minimum wage or overtime requirements. Liquidated ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Fire Captain David Simister and Cobb County, Georgia have agreed to a $30,000 settlement to end a lawsuit Simister filed in August 2020. Simister’s lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on August 13, 2020, contained allegations the county failed to pay overtime as required by the FLSA and that the county ...

In this VLOG, Curt Varone and I discuss several recent changes to DOL policy and opinions following President Biden’s inauguration. These changes are likely the first of many that we will be seeing in the near future. For more on the FLSA and how it applies to firefighters and other first responders, please consider joining us at one of the ...

Cathedral City, California, has settled a lawsuit filed by 47 current and former firefighters that alleged the city failed to pay them overtime as required by the FLSA. The lawsuit, which was filed on March 19, 2019, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, contained allegations the city failed to include all remuneration in the firefighters’ ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief for a small combination fire department. In addition to myself, we employ fifteen full-time employees. Twelve firefighter/medics, two lieutenants, and one captain all assigned to 24-hour shifts (24 hours on, 48 hours off) working a 56-hour average workweek. We use a 14-day work period and pay overtime for all hours worked over ...