Maryland Volunteer Fire Company Facing FLSA Lawsuit

A Maryland firefighter has filed an FLSA lawsuit on behalf of himself and other firefighters alleging their employer, the Berlin Fire Company, Inc., failed to pay overtime as required by the FLSA and Maryland law. The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland contains allegations that the Berlin Fire Company misclassified the plaintiff and as many as twenty-five other firefighters as §207(k) firefighters.

The §207(k) partial overtime exemption allows public agency fire departments avoid the FLSA’s traditional requirement for overtime pay after working more than forty hours in a seven-day workweek. In order for a fire department to utilize this partial exemption, it must be a public agency. Whether a fire department meets the §207(k) public agency requirement is a question of fact. In other words, that determination is made on a case-by-case basis depending on the specific facts and circumstances at hand.  Generally speaking, volunteer fire companies and other privately incorporated organizations that provide fire and EMS services will not qualify as a public agency under the FLSA.

According to the firefighter’s complaint, the Berlin Fire Company paid its firefighters under the §207(k) partial exemption until sometime in March 2023. The complaint does not specify why the fire company changed its pay practices or how it pays its firefighters presently. However, due to this fact the named plaintiff and potential future class members are only seeking back wages and damages from June 28, 2021, through March 2023.

Here is more from the complaint:

• This is a collective and class action brought by Plaintiff George K Braniecki (“Plaintiff”), individually and on behalf of the members of the proposed classes identified below.
• During the statutory recovery period June 28, 2021, through the approximately March 2023 (“the relevant period”), Defendant Berlin Fire Company, Inc. (“Defendant”) employed Plaintiff and approximately twenty-five (25) or more similarly situated individuals (“the Class Members”) as firefighters performing firefighter employment duties within Worcester County, Maryland, and surrounding counties and metropolitan areas.
• During the relevant period, Defendant employed Plaintiff as a firefighter to perform firefighter employment duties within Worcester County, Maryland, and surrounding counties and metropolitan areas.
• During the relevant period, Defendant employed approximately Twenty-Five (25) or more firefighters to perform firefighter employment duties within Worchester County, Maryland, and surrounding counties and metropolitan areas.
• During the relevant period, Plaintiff regularly and customarily worked more than Forty (40) hours per week.
• During the relevant period, Defendant misclassified Plaintiff as subject to the limited overtime exemption set forth in FLSA Section 207(k), under which Defendant paid Plaintiff at the time-and-one-half overtime rate only for overtime Plaintiff worked exceeding Two Hundred Twelve (212) hours during Twenty Eight (28) day periods, and, in so doing, failed to pay Plaintiff FLSA and Maryland required earned wages at the rate of one and one-half times Plaintiff’s regular hourly rate for all overtime Plaintiff worked exceeding Forty (40) hours per week.
• During the relevant period, Defendant failed to fully and timely pay Plaintiff all earned wages due each pay period for all overtime worked exceeding Forty (40) hours per week.
• On information and belief, prior to or during the relevant period, Defendant learned that it had and/or continued to misclassify Plaintiff and the Class Members as subject to the limited overtime exemption set forth in FLSA Section 207(k), and in so learning, knew or reasonably s have known the rate and method by which Defendant was or continued to pay Plaintiff and the Class Members for overtime worked exceeding Forty (40) hours per week was in direct violation the FLSA and Maryland overtime compensation requirements, and that its past or ongoing failure to pay Plaintiff and the Class Members at the FLSA and Maryland law constituted a past and ongoing unlawful withholding of Plaintiff and the Class Members’ earned wages in violation of the FLSA and Maryland law.

Coincidently, the FLSA’s §207(k) partial overtime exemption is not the only special provision of the FLSA that is only available to public agencies. For example, the FLSA’s comp time, special details, and shift substitution provisions all require that the employer is a public agency. Additionally, several Department of Labor (DOL) regulations are only applicable to local and state governmental employees.

Here is a copy of the complaint.

Also, here is a copy of a Department of Labor Opinion letter from 2018 that helps further explain the requirements necessary to meet the FLSA’s public agency definition related to the §207(k) partial overtime exemption.