In the latest bit of legal wrangling between the City of Martinsburg and its professional firefighters, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has denied the city’s appeal seeking to reverse an earlier ruling by a lower court, in favor of the firefighters. As a result, the 2018 lawsuit which centers around a highly unique West Virginia statute related to ...
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Illinois Firefighters File FLSA Suit
A group of four firefighters have filed a lawsuit, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging their employer, the Village of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, underpaid them for overnight shifts and failed to pay overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law. The Village of Winthrop Harbor is a ...
Read More »OK City Settles FLSA Suit with Firefighters
The City of Chickasha, Oklahoma and has settled an FLSA lawsuit with 31 city firefighters for almost $150,000. The settlement stems from a December 2020 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. The firefighters alleged the city failed to include longevity pay in their regular rate of pay. The FLSA requires wage augments, like ...
Read More »NYC Settles FLSA Lawsuit with Four FDNY Motor Vehicle Operators for more than $400K
The City of New York has agreed to pay four current and former FDNY Motor Vehicle Operators (MVOs) and their attorneys a total of $429,901.18 to settle an unpaid overtime lawsuit. The MVOs, filed the lawsuit in June 2019, alleging the city failed to pay them for required pre-and-post shift activities (i.e., off-the-clock work), time spent working during unpaid meal ...
Read More »Louisiana Firefighters Set to Receive Close to $1.7 Million in Back Pay 13 Years after Filing Suit
The State of Louisiana has a unique state law that requires most firefighters in that state receive a uniform minimum salary amount and longevity pay after three years of continuous service. In 2008, a group of thirty-two current and former Bastrop, Louisiana firefighters filed a lawsuit in state court alleging the city’s pay practices violated this state law. In 2014, ...
Read More »CA Fire District Settles FLSA Regular Rate Lawsuit with Firefighters
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 ...
Read More »8th Circuit Denies Kansas City Medics OT Claims
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has found that the City of Kansas City, MO did not violate the FLSA when it adopted a new pay plan for fire department medics and classified existing Fire Medics as employees engaged in fire protection activities (a.k.a. §207(k) firefighters). The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by two different groups of ...
Read More »DOL Makes FLSA Mistakes More Costly for Employers
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 ...
Read More »Judge Rules that Kansas City Firefighters’ FLSA Lawsuit can Continue
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 ...
Read More »TX Firefighters Frustrated with Payroll Problems Months After Cyber-Attack Consider FLSA Suit
The City of Texarkana, Texas is struggling to rebuild its internal payroll functions following a December 2020 cyber-attack. The attack, which corrupted and destroyed payroll data maintained by the city’s finance and human resource departments was initially discovered on December 6, 2020. In response to the breach, the city continued to pay impacted employees based on the last known accurate ...
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