Tag Archives: regulations

Today’s FLSA Question: I have a question about mandatory overtime and the FLSA. If a firefighter is ordered to work an extra shift, doesn’t the FLSA require time and one-half pay for that shift? This is my situation. I am a full-time paid firefighter/paramedic. We work a 24/48 schedule with an assigned Kelly Day every three weeks. This combination results ...

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 ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid firefighter working for a small fire department with 13 full-time firefighters. We work 24 hours on duty, followed by a 48 hours off-duty for an average of 56 hours per week. My department has a strange way of paying overtime. Instead of paying firefighters for overtime worked in a regular bi-weekly paycheck; ...

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 ...

A group of fire investigators from the Prince George’s County Fire Department have settled an overtime lawsuit they filed last summer. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on June 18, 2020, on behalf of fourteen county fire investigators, alleged the county’s pay practices violated the FLSA. Specifically, the investigators claimed the county improperly classified them as §207(k) firefighters. ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid fire chief for a private non-profit volunteer fire company. Over the past twenty-five years our organization has grown and required the hiring of several daytime staff personnel (training chief, fire marshal, assistant chief) to augment our core of volunteer and paid-on-call firefighters. But we are now in the process of hiring our ...

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 full-time firefighter for a small combination fire department. We work a 24/48 schedule for an average of 56 hours per week. The department has a policy that requires firefighters be on-call for at least one 24-hour shift every two-week work period. The department pays on-call firefighters $24 for each on-call shift and overtime if called ...