Today’s FLSA Question: I am a fulltime firefighter in a municipal fire department. Our department allows firefighters to trade shifts with each other. However, the department just fired a firefighter that owes me 48 hours in shift trades. What happens to those hours? Since the department fired the other firefighter, shouldn’t the department be responsible for the 48 hours of ...

The Town of Brookline, Massachusetts and group of more than 100 current and former firefighters and officers have reached a settlement to resolve a 2023 lawsuit. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on December 1, 2023, by two Brookline fire lieutenants quickly grew to include a class of 119 other current and former Brookline firefighters and officers. The ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a firefighter for a small municipal fire department. Currently our department is only staffed during daytime hours. We utilize a paid-on-call system and call-backs for incidents that occur during overnight hours. We are transitioning to a 24-hour staffing model in the new year with the combination of fulltime and part-time firefighters. Each shift will have ...

The Bartlesville, Oklahoma City Council is poised to approve a settlement offer intended to resolve a lawsuit filed in federal court last week by 75 current and former city firefighters. The firefighters’ complaint contains allegations that the city violated the FLSA by failing to include “various stipends” in their regular rate of pay. According to the complaint, these stipends include: ...

A group of more than forty current and former Los Angeles police officers have filed a lawsuit alleging the city’s pay practices violate the FLSA. The officers’ complaint was filed in federal court this week as a collective action and will likely grow to include more “similarly situated” officers. According to the complaint, the city fails to include educational incentives ...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of an FLSA lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles firefighter seeking compensation for time spent sequestered at a hotel at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Los Angeles Firefighter Bryan Hunt filed this lawsuit, on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals, after ...

The Robinson Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department and its fire chief are facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by two former members. Akash Patel and Aaron Garbus filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on September 9, 2024. In the complaint, Patel and Garbus allege the department failed to pay overtime and improperly ...

For a second year in a row, firefighters in Jackson, Mississippi are lobbying city officials for a substantial pay increase in an effort to bring firefighter pay in-line with neighboring communities. According to WAPT News the fire chief has budgeted a $10,000 across the board increase in next year’s budget, however union officials claim more is needed. As a result, ...

The City of Gadsden and ninety-four current and former city firefighters and officers of various ranks have reached a global settlement following a 2022 FLSA lawsuit. The firefighter’s initial complaint, which was filed in federal court in May 2022 was limited to alleged violations of the firefighters’ regular rate of pay. However, that complaint was amended in August 2022 to ...

Is there such a thing as too much overtime? That is a question being asked of Washington DC officials after a series of local news reports that continue to highlight systemic operational failures in the Office of Unified Communications,  the department tasked with handlining 1.8 million 911 calls per year in our nation’s capitol. According to NBC 4, close to ...