A former Aurora, Colorado firefighter has filed a lawsuit in federal court against his former employer seeking overtime pay for unpaid worktime while attending recruit school at the city’s fire academy. Joseph Elias filed the suit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on January 21, 2025.
According to the complaint, the city runs a full-time 25-week training academy for newly hired firefighters. The city pays the recruit firefighters an established weekly salary consisting of 40 hours of pay for all 25 weeks. However, according to Elias the city’s recruit firefighters work far more than 40 hours per week and the city fails to pay for this additional work time in violation of the FLSA.
Quoting from the complaint:
- Plaintiffs started each workday at 5:30 a.m. by performing various mandatory chores, including but not limited to inspecting personal protective equipment, inventorying equipment and apparatus, and having their vital signs checked, followed by a mandatory workout from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
- Plaintiffs’ training at the Fire Academy generally ended between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. each workday.
- After training each workday at the Fire Academy, Plaintiffs were required to perform additional mandatory chores.
- If Plaintiffs failed to complete all of their mandatory pre- and post-training chores, Plaintiffs were subjected to disciplinary action by the City and/or forced to complete physically taxing exercises as a form of discipline.
- Due to the schedule described above, Plaintiffs worked over 40 hours per week at the Fire Academy.
- Plaintiffs were required to pass various written examinations while attending the Fire Academy. In order to prepare for these examinations, Plaintiffs were required to study the material while away from the Academy.
- Plaintiffs were also required to study independently, outside of regular working hours, to prepare for various PowerPoint presentations administered by Defendant at the Fire Academy. During each of these PowerPoint presentations, Defendant orally quizzed Plaintiffs on the day’s topics to ensure that Plaintiffs had studied the information prior to the presentation.
- If Plaintiffs were not prepared for each of Defendant’s PowerPoint presentations, including studying the relevant material independently prior to each such presentation, Plaintiffs were subject to discipline, chastised by Defendant, and/or forced to perform physically taxing exercises as a form of discipline.
- Defendant did not track, or compensate Plaintiffs for, any time spent studying independently, and Defendant did not place a limit on the amount of time Plaintiffs were permitted to spend studying independently. All time spent studying was in addition to the hours worked on- site by Plaintiffs each workday.
- In addition to any time spent by Plaintiffs studying for the various mandatory written examinations and oral quizzes at the Fire Academy, Defendant required Plaintiffs to watch a series of mandatory training videos outside of regular working hours. The duration of these videos, as well as the date and time that Plaintiffs completed each video, were tracked via Defendant’s learning management software. However, Defendant did not compensate Plaintiffs for any time spent watching these mandatory training videos.
- Plaintiffs were also required to complete various written assignments outside of regular working hours at the Fire Academy, including but not limited to weekly written Captain’s Evaluations and the drafting of a line of duty death letter. Defendant did not track, or compensate Plaintiffs for, any time spent working on these mandatory written assignments, and Defendant did not place a limit on the amount of time Plaintiffs were permitted to spend on these assignments.
- Each Plaintiff was required to spend approximately 12 to 16 hours per week to complete their mandatory studying and written assignments and to watch all required training videos.
- While Plaintiffs were attending the Fire Academy, Defendant did not compensate Plaintiffs for the time Plaintiffs spent eating breakfast or lunch on-site each workday.
- While Plaintiffs were attending the Fire Academy, during breakfast and lunch each workday, Defendant prohibited Plaintiffs from using electronic devices, such as cellphones, and often required Plaintiffs to complete various mandatory chores, receive supplemental instruction, perform drills, and take written tests.
- While attending the Fire Academy, some or all Plaintiffs were ordered to perform mandatory work referred to by the City as “volunteering,” such as staffing the annual IAFF Fire Fighter Memorial. Defendant did not compensate Plaintiffs for their time spent performing this so- called “volunteer” work.
- During Plaintiff Elias’s induction week at the Fire Academy, from July 17, 2023, through July 21, 2023, Defendant made repeated statements which explicitly discouraged Plaintiff Elias and his classmates from contacting Human Resources or otherwise lodging complaints against their supervisors. These included claims that whistleblowing violates Aurora Fire Rescue’s chain of command, that if Human Resources did not side with an employee who had lodged a complaint, that employee would be “done,” and that Defendant would obstruct any such employee’s employment prospects throughout the Denver Metropolitan Area.
- The City has previously acknowledged that recruits attending the Academy would be entitled to overtime if they worked a full schedule each weekday at the Academy. For example, during Plaintiff Elias’ Fire Academy orientation on July 14, 2023, and throughout his induction week at the Fire Academy from July 17 through July 21, 2023, Defendant repeatedly claimed that recruits would be given Wednesdays off at the Academy to prevent them from working overtime. In practice, the City required Plaintiff Elias and his classmates to work regular schedules each weekday at the Academy, despite acknowledging that this would result in the recruits earning overtime pay.
- On information and belief, the City has intentionally altered or falsified its timekeeping records for firefighter recruits attending training at the Fire Academy by entering incorrect start times for each day of work and not accurately tracking the actual hours worked by each employee. The City took these actions in order to evade its obligations under the FLSA.
The FLSA requires employers to compensate employees for all hours worked. Generally speaking, that includes time spent before and after the “official” workday to perform tasks required by the employer whether that work occurs at the job site [fire academy] or at some other location [home/library, etc.].
For further insight, look to Department of Labor regulations found at 29 CFR § 785.11-13:
§ 785.11 General.
Work not requested but suffered or permitted is work time. For example, an employee may voluntarily continue to work at the end of the shift. He may be a pieceworker, he may desire to finish an assigned task or he may wish to correct errors, paste work tickets, prepare time reports or other records. The reason is immaterial. The employer knows or has reason to believe that he is continuing to work and the time is working time.
§ 785.12 Work performed away from the premises or job site.
The rule is also applicable to work performed away from the premises or the job site, or even at home. If the employer knows or has reason to believe that the work is being performed, he must count the time as hours worked.
§ 785.13 Duty of management.
In all such cases it is the duty of the management to exercise its control and see that the work is not performed if it does not want it to be performed. It cannot sit back and accept the benefits without compensating for them. The mere promulgation of a rule against such work is not enough. Management has the power to enforce the rule and must make every effort to do so.
We will be following this case closely to see where it goes and what we can learn from it. Coincidently, this isn’t the only firefighter academy overtime lawsuit filed in Colorado recently. You can find a similar story out of Denver from this past summer from my friend and colleague Curt Varone’s FireLaw Blog posted below as well as a copy of this complaint.
Do you have questions about the FLSA? Consider joining us in just a few short weeks for FLSA for Fire Departments in Indianapolis, Indiana from February 11-13, 2025.