RI Firefighter Files Lawsuit Seeking Pay for Time Spent Caring for K9

A recently retired arson investigator has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging his former employer, the City of Providence [Providence Fire Department], failed to pay him for all of the time spent caring for and training his K9 work partner. The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island by retired arson investigator Peter Sword earlier this week, contains allegations that the city’s pay practices violated both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Rhode Island Minimum Wage Act (RIMWA). Quoting from the complaint:

• The Plaintiff has been employed with Defendant City as a firefighter from March 16, 1992 until Plaintiff’s retirement on March 16, 2024.
• Plaintiffs served the first twenty-two years on the job as a Firefighter/EMT, before transferring to the fire department’s Fire Investigation Unit in or about 2013 – 2014, and then became an Arson Investigator in 2017.
• In March 2019, Plaintiff Sword began working as a canine handler with Accelerant Detection K9 Wizard, (“K9”) a then-2-year old Labrador retriever.
• Plaintiff Sword’s regular work week being assigned to Car 79 was four ten-hour days per week – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – for a total of forty hours per week, as well as being required to be on call 24/7.
• Plaintiff received no additional compensation, and was not paid the overtime owed, for his care, maintenance, exercise, and training of K-9 Wizard on weekdays, weekends or holidays, from March 2019 through March 2024.
• The Defendant paid for the K9’s food and veterinarian bills.
• Plaintiff was responsible for the K9 at all times, with the K9 going home each night with Plaintiff to Plaintiff’s home, where the Plaintiff continued to care, maintain, exercise, and train K-9 Wizard.
• Seven days a week, Plaintiff did care for, maintain, exercise, and train the K9. This is time for which Plaintiff was not paid, though Plaintiff was performing work-related duties.
• Each day Plaintiff spent approximately (70) minutes caring for, maintaining and training the K9.
• Each day Plaintiff spent approximately one (1) to one-and-a-half (1 ½) hours exercising the K9.
• The City’s actions are willful as it knows and is aware that K9 handlers are required to work for the City’s benefit beyond their regular work schedule, as the City provides Providence Police canine handlers additional compensation for the care they provide police canines.
• The City provided no such additional compensation for the Providence Fire canine, despite being aware that Plaintiff was performing work-related duties and spending additional time, for which he was not compensated, in the care, maintenance, exercise, and training of the K9.
• There is no agreement between Plaintiff and Defendant as to the amount of compensable time Plaintiff would receive for caring for the K9 while on-duty or off-duty.
• Defendant did not limit or specify the amount of time Plaintiff was to spend caring for, maintaining, exercising, and training for the K9 while on-duty or off-duty, yet Defendant required Plaintiff to appropriately care for, maintain, exercise, and train the K9 every day and to have the K9 fit and ready for duty.
• Plaintiff’s supervisors and the Defendant were aware that Plaintiff was not being compensated for the additional time and overtime that Plaintiff worked in his assigned work-related duties in caring for, maintaining, exercising, and training of the K9 that occurred both on-duty and off-duty.
• Defendant has been aware for over three years that Plaintiff is not being paid for time, including overtime, that Plaintiff spent doing his job duties as the K9’s handler and yet Defendant has repeatedly and continuously refused to pay Plaintiff for that time, including overtime.
• Defendant’s refusal to pay Plaintiffs for the additional time spent caring for the K9 is willful.
• As a proximate result of the Defendant City’s unlawful employment practices, Plaintiff’s retirement pay was not calculated properly to Plaintiff’s detriment, as it should have included, but for the City’s willful acts, further pay for the additional time and overtime Plaintiff worked as the Providence Fire Department’s K9 handler from March 2019 through March 2024.

According to the complaint, Sword alleges that the city’s actions were willful. Willful violations trigger a three-year statute of limitations instead of the FLSA’s standard two-year look-back. In addition to back wages and the standard damages typical in both federal and state wage and hour violations, Sword is also seeking a recalculation of his retirement pay to include overtime and other wages that “should have [been] made.”

Non-exempt employees must be paid for all hours worked. This includes time spent working outside of the workplace and outside of the employee’s normally scheduled workday. The time spent “off-duty” by fire investigators and law enforcement officers caring for and training their four-legged work partners is one of the best examples of this basic FLSA requirement. We will be keeping a close eye on this one as it develops.

Click here for more on the story from GoLocalProv News.

Here is a copy of the complaint: