Tag Archives: unpaid hours

Today’s FLSA Question: I work as a full-time fire lieutenant for a combination fire department. Our full-time firefighters and officers work a 24/48 schedule. We also have a small group of volunteer firefighters that assist at larger incidents. I am on my department’s grant committee. The committee consists of myself, the Fire Marshal, and the Assistant Chief. I am the ...

A North Carolina EMS Captain has filed a lawsuit against The Cooks Community Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., alleging violations of the FLSA. Captain Christopher Crump filed the suit in federal court on February 26, 2024. Crump’s primary claim is the that his department fails to pay him and other similarly situated firefighters overtime after working more than 40 hours in ...

Today’s Advanced FLSA Question: What are the potential wage and hour concerns associated with sending non-exempt firefighters out of state to spec and/or inspect new fire apparatus? Answer: Good question. Believe it or not, this is a very advanced question. Allowing overtime eligible employees [like firefighters] to engage in work-related travel without considering the potential wage and hour implications is ...

Lockheed Martin [a global aerospace and defense contractor] has settled a 2022 FLSA lawsuit filed by a group of forty-nine industrial firefighters for a total of $949,996. The crux of the firefighter’s claims was that Lockheed Martin only paid its in-house firefighters’ overtime after they worked more than 48 hours per week. The FLSA requires non-public agency fire departments, pay ...

A large group of FDNY emergency medical technicians and paramedics filed a federal lawsuit late last week alleging that the City of New York’s pay practices violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit, which contains several claims including uncompensated off-the clock work, regular rate violations, and failure to timely pay overtime compensation was filed in the U.S. District ...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a lone Los Angeles firefighter, on behalf of himself and “other similarly situated individuals” [a.k.a. other firefighters] for unpaid overtime while attending the county’s fire academy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in state court only to be moved to federal court in July 2021, contained allegations ...

The Upper Captiva Fire Protection and Rescue Service District (district) is facing its second FLSA misclassification lawsuit from a former chief officer since 2021. The district provides fire and EMS services on the tiny island of North Captiva on Florida’s gulf coast. The island of North Captiva is located a few miles northwest of Ft. Meyers Beach and is only ...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has ordered the City of Gary, Indiana to pay 154 firefighters and 18 paramedics a total of $672,000 in back overtime wages. The order follows a DOL investigation into the city’s pay practices related to firefighter and medic pay. According to the DOL, the city failed to pay firefighters overtime for all hours worked ...

Ten Cobb County, Georgia battalion chiefs have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county has failed to pay them overtime as required by federal law. More specifically, the battalion chiefs claim the county misclassified them as overtime exempt “white collar” employees in violation of the FLSA. Quoting from the complaint: Within the last three years, and continuing to date, while ...

The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma is one step closer to resolving an FLSA lawsuit filed by nearly 500 Tulsa firefighters. This past Wednesday, the Tulsa City Council approved a settlement in the amount of $1,060,000. The firefighter’s complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in February 2022, contained several allegations related ...