Tag Archives: regulations

A federal lawsuit filed by Honolulu paramedic Robert Hayslip will expand to include hundreds of other “similarly situated” EMTs and medics following a federal judge’s ruling last week. United States District Court Judge, Derrick K. Watson granted a motion filed by Hayslip’s attorneys to conditionally certify the lawsuit as a “collective action.” According to Hayslip’s attorneys, as many as 300 ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I recently read a news story about a fire chief that retired and received compensation for 93 comp time days in addition to his unused vacation and sick time. My question is specifically about the comp time buy-out. Assuming that each “day” equaled 8 hours of comp time, that equates to 744 hours of comp time. My ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid firefighter in a small rural combination fire department. We have 12 full-time firefighters and another dozen active volunteers. Our department has strict rules that forbid our paid firefighters volunteering their time for the department. Recently, the department began allowing the volunteer firefighters the opportunity to pick up “per diem” shifts. The volunteers ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a third-party EMS agency that contracts 911 service for a rural county. Our agency is struggling to find medics and EMTs. As a result, overtime and mandatory overtime has turned into the norm. In an effort to incentivize employees to take additional shifts, my company has begun offering a bonus in addition to overtime ...

My friend and colleague Curt Varone recently posted a story on his Fire Law Blog entitled, “Part-Time Fire Chiefs and Compensation.” The post answered a burning question that Curt received on whether part-time fire chiefs can be classified as overtime exempt executive employees. Curt did a great job answering that question and providing some alternative options for compensating part-time fire ...

The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District has settled a lawsuit filed earlier this year by two former fire department battalion chiefs. The settlement, which was approved by U.S. District Court Judge, Janis L. Sammartino on January 9, 2023, requires the district to pay a total of $99,000 to settle the former battalion chiefs’ overtime lawsuit. The two battalion chiefs ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid firefighter that works a 56-hour average workweek utilizing a 48/96 schedule. My department calculates my regular rate and overtime rate by taking my annual salary, including stipends and longevity, and dividing that by 2,912. According to human resources, that is the proper method since that is the number of hours that our ...

Humphreys County, Tennessee is the latest public employer to face an FLSA lawsuit filed by its employees. A group of six current and former workers from the county’s sheriff’s office filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated individuals in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on October 31, 2022. The plaintiffs, four ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a firefighter in a small full-time unionized fire department. Our most recent three-year collective bargaining agreement provided us with “discretionary” lump-sum annual bonuses in lieu of traditional percentage-based wage increases. In the first year of the contract, we received a $2,000 lump sum payment. In the second and third year of the contract we will ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time firefighter in a small combination fire department. My department has a long history of providing FLSA comp time instead of paying FLSA overtime. However, the department uses the firefighter’s base hourly rate when using accrued comp time. This base rate does not include any wage incentives or stipends. Additionally, the fire department allows ...