Tag Archives: regulations

Should police officers assigned to a prestigious SWAT unit be paid while on-call awaiting their next activation? That is the question being asked this week in a Jefferson County courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. A group of 41 current and former Louisville Metro Police Department (Metro) SWAT Team members filed the lawsuit over 5 years ago claiming their employer failed to ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time firefighter for a small city fire department. Our state does not recognize collective bargaining for public employees and we are not represented by a union.  Firefighter pay in our city lags behind most of our neighboring departments. As a result, recruitment and retention is a huge issue. The city recently looked to address ...

In today’s Fire Law VLOG, Curt and Bill discuss the fire service implications related to an expected increase in the minimum salary requirements for overtime exempt white-collar [EAP] employees. Do you have questions about the FLSA and how it applies to firefighters and other first responders? Please consider attending the next FLSA for Fire Departments Live Webinar scheduled for June ...

Today’s FLSA Question: My fire department initiated a “sign-on bonus” program for paramedics a couple of years ago. Under the terms of the program, lateral paramedic transfers received a one-time $5,000 sign-on bonus at the time of hire. In exchange for the bonus, the paramedic signed an agreement that they would remain employed with the fire department for at least ...

A federal judge has found in favor of a group of thirty Pemberton Township, New Jersey police officers and sergeants following their 2014 lawsuit over uncompensated pre-and-post shift work activities. The judge’s decision, which came after eight years of litigation and a 4-day bench [non-jury] trial found that Pemberton Township failed to pay the officers for time spent preparing their ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has reversed a lower court ruling that previously dismissed an FLSA overtime lawsuit filed by a North Carolina EMT. Sara Conner, an EMT for Cleveland County, North Carolina Emergency Medical Services filed the lawsuit, on behalf of herself and other similarly situated EMTs, in the U.S. District Court for the Western ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a volunteer fire chief for a fully volunteer fire department. Like many volunteer fire departments, we struggle getting trucks on the road during weekday hours. However, we have several volunteer firefighters that are employed by the town in other departments in addition to serving as volunteer firefighters. Recently, a town official proposed allowing these town ...

A United States Magistrate Judge has ruled in the favor of more than 450 Kansas City, Missouri firefighters following their FLSA lawsuit against the city. In a 2019 lawsuit, Kansas City firefighters claimed the city failed to include a wide range of wage augments in their overtime rate of pay. The FLSA requires “all remuneration for employment paid to, or ...

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 ...

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 ...