Firefighter Overtime Discussing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Firefighters, First Responders as well as Human Resource & Finance Professional
Three fire captains employed by the City of Bondurant, Iowa have filed a lawsuit alleging the city failed to properly pay overtime required under both Iowa law and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The case was originally filed in Iowa District Court for Polk County earlier this year and later removed by the city to federal court because it includes federal wage and hour claims.
According to the complaint, the three plaintiff captains claim they perform the same fire protection duties as other non-exempt firefighters and paramedics, however, the captains are classified as overtime exempt. The complaint was filed by a total of three current fire captains. The first plaintiff, Sarah Merrill has worked for the city as a firefighter and/or paramedic since August 2024 and was promoted to Captain in June 2025. The second named plaintiff, Andrew Simoni was hired as a Captain in April 2025, and the third plaintiff, Benjamin Sieve was hired as a Captain in June 2025. All three allege that they engaged in fire protection activities throughout their employment and regularly worked schedules exceeding 40 hours per week, including consistent 42-hour workweeks and some workweeks which exceeded 55 hours per week without earning any overtime pay.
The complaint cites the city’s employee handbook, which defines the workweek as beginning at midnight Monday and ending 168 hours later, and states that non-exempt employees receive time-and-a-half pay for hours over 40 in a workweek. The plaintiffs claim other city firefighters and paramedics were compensated under this standard [overtime after working 40 hours in a 7-day workweek] while they were not.
In addition to the misclassification claims, a major part of the lawsuit centers on allegations that the fire department failed to establish a qualifying work period as required by both the FLSA and U.S. Department of Labor regulations. Section 207(k) of the FLSA is a specific overtime provision allowing public agencies employing firefighters to adopt an alternative work period — longer than a standard seven-day workweek — before overtime is owed. Under the complaint, the plaintiffs assert that the City of Bondurant did not formally adopt a 207(k) schedule or designated work period.
The complaint alleges:
- The city did not formally adopt a §207(k) work period despite employing firefighters in fire protection activities.
- City policies identify a conventional 40-hour workweek structure and defined the workweek in standard 168-hour terms.
- Because no §207(k) work period was adopted, the plaintiffs allege that overtime should have been calculated under the normal FLSA 40-hour rule.
- Despite this requirement the city allegedly misclassified the captains as exempt and did not pay overtime when their hours exceeded 40 per week.
In addition to unpaid overtime and improperly implementing a qualifying work period, the plaintiffs allege the city violated state labor laws by failing to pay holiday pay as promised under its employee handbook. These holidays include additional compensation for New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The lawsuit claims failure to pay holiday benefits as promised by city policy resulted in a state law violation.
The plaintiffs seek:
- All unpaid wages and unpaid overtime required by the FLSA.
- All unpaid wages and overtime as promised by the city’s employment policies [i.e., employee handbook].
- Liquidated damages equal to the amount of unpaid wages.
- Interest, court costs, and attorney fees.
Historically, many fire officers were often misclassified as exempt based on their title and supervisory role, however more recently the focus has evolved to include the officer’s first-responder duties as opposed to solely their rank when determining whether the officer meets the FLSA and DOL requirements as a “bona fide” exempt employee.
Here is a copy of the captains’ complaint and some more on work periods and the §207(k) partial overtime exemption.
