Tag Archives: settlement

The San Diego City Council unanimously approved a $3.4 million settlement with more than 700 city firefighters this week. The settlement resolves a 2019 lawsuit, that was initially filed by only three city firefighters, alleging the city’s pay practices violated the FLSA. Over the course of the next several months hundreds of more firefighters opted into the suit. In the ...

A Federal Magistrate Judge has recommended the approval of a $350,000 settlement between the City of Merced and several dozen firefighters following a 2018 FLSA lawsuit. The firefighters alleged the city’s failure to include holiday “in-lieu” pay in their regular rate of pay violated the FLSA. The city continues to assert that it did not violate the FLSA, however in ...

The Newton County Fire Department has reached a settlement with three battalion chiefs (BCs) following a 2019 lawsuit over FLSA overtime. The three BCs filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in November 2019. The three alleged the county improperly reclassified BCs from overtime eligible first responders to overtime exempt employees in July 2018. ...

Last week a federal judge approved an almost $3 million settlement between Air Evac EMS, Inc., a global company that operates more than 140 air ambulance helicopters in 15 states across the country, and over 400 current and former flight nurses, medics, and pilots. The settlement follows a 2018 lawsuit containing allegations of unpaid overtime. Jason Peck, a former flight ...

The City of Charleston, West Virginia has reached a $1.7 million settlement with more than 160 current and former firefighters over the way the city pays them for holidays. This settlement follows claims made by firefighters last year that the city’s holiday pay plan violated West Virginia law. This settlement is unique in two ways: First, the Charleston firefighter’s claims ...

The City of Providence, RI has settled a 2013 FLSA lawsuit filed by city police officers for more than $1.7 million dollars. According to the Providence Journal, the terms of the settlement require the city to pay $1.5 million to more than 400 current and former officers and an additional $223,000 to the officers’ attorneys. The city has yet to ...

The City of Santa Clara, California has settled an FLSA lawsuit by agreeing to pay more than 650 current and former city employees a total of $2.7 million. While the terms of the settlement require the city to make payments to over 650 potential plaintiffs, the vast majority of which are non-firefighters, we will focus on how the settlement applies ...

The crux of the plaintiff’s complaint involved alleged FLSA regular rate violations. In particular, the city’s failure to include certain wage augments in the plaintiffs’ regular rate. The FLSA requires virtually all the money an employee is paid included in his or her regular rate. Proper calculation of the regular rate is critical since all FLSA overtime must be paid at a rate of at least time-and-one-half of the employee’s regular rate. Very often employers utilize an employee’s base hourly rate to calculate the overtime rate of pay. However, the FLSA requires that all remuneration be included in the regular rate of pay.

Specifically, the plaintiffs made two basic claims:

• First, the city failed to include money paid directly to employees in lieu of receiving employer sponsored medical benefits in the regular rate.
• Second, the plaintiffs also wanted holiday pay included in their regular rate.

A lawsuit initially filed by only two Wisconsin paramedics in June 2018 has resulted in a settlement. The defendants in the suit—the Great Divide Ambulance Company and four different Wisconsin Townships—have agreed to pay twelve EMTs and medics a total of $255,000 to settle all overtime claims related to the suit. For more on the initial lawsuit: Wisconsin Medics Claim ...

Retired Division Chief Ronald Pelham has reached a $115,000 court approved settlement with the City of Monrovia, California following an FLSA lawsuit. Pelham alleged, in his September 2018 complaint that the Monrovia Fire Department misclassified him as an overtime exempt executive employee and failed to pay him any FLSA overtime. Pelham’s lawsuit was one of several filed across the country ...