Tag Archives: workweek

Firefighters, Floating Kelly Days, and the FLSA

Today’s FLSA Question: My department provides all firefighters and officers [except for staff personnel assigned to 40-hour workweeks] 13 floating Kelly Days per year. In exchange for these Kelly Days, we do not receive any FLSA overtime for our scheduled work shifts. In the past, the department allowed two firefighters to use their floating Kelly Day on any given shift. ...

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Waiting Four Weeks for Overtime

Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a municipal fire department. Everybody that works for the city [including the fire department] is paid on a weekly basis. However, firefighters do not receive overtime pay on a weekly basis. The firefighters overtime pay is included in every fourth paycheck. Why do firefighters have to wait? By the way, other city employees don’t ...

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TN County Sheriffs File FLSA Lawsuit for Regular Rate Violations and Unpaid Overtime Following Change in Work and Pay Periods

Humphreys County, Tennessee is the latest public employer to face an FLSA lawsuit filed by its employees. A group of six current and former workers from the county’s sheriff’s office filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated individuals in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on October 31, 2022. The plaintiffs, four ...

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Tulsa Firefighters File FLSA Suit

A group of thirteen Tulsa, Oklahoma firefighters have filed an FLSA lawsuit against the City of Tulsa, the mayor, and the city’s chief operating officer. The thirteen filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated employees [i.e., other Tulsa firefighters that will likely join the lawsuit over the next few months] in the U.S. District Court for ...

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Platoon Bid, Collective Bargaining, and the FLSA

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the union president for a mid-sized municipal fire department. Our labor agreement allows us to conduct an annual bid. Basically, all shift personnel bid by seniority in rank to a specific platoon (A, B, or C) and piece of apparatus once a year. The only “catch” is that the bid must occur at “no-cost” to ...

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Wake County, NC and Paramedics Reach a Quick Settlement Following FLSA Lawsuit

Wake County, North Carolina has reached a very quick settlement with a group of current and former paramedics following a March 2021 FLSA lawsuit in which county medics alleged “miscalculated overtime premiums.” The settlement requires Wake County pay a total of $297,121.90 to settle all claims for back wages and liquidated damages with all plaintiffs. Additionally, the county will pay ...

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NC Paramedic Files FLSA Overtime Lawsuit Against County

A Wake County, North Carolina paramedic has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county’s time tracking system fails to pay paramedics overtime as required by the FLSA. Paramedic Steven Gorrell filed this lawsuit, on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on March 16, 2021. [As a ...

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Quarterly Overtime Payments and the FLSA

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; ...

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