Firefighter Overtime Discussing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Firefighters, First Responders as well as Human Resource & Finance Professional

FLSA Question: I am a battalion chief in a mid-sized municipal fire department. I command a platoon of firefighters and work 24-hour shifts. I work an average of 56 hours per week. I do not receive any overtime. The city considers myself and other BCs overtime-exempt executives. . . . I recently read that “first responders” are entitled to overtime ...

Six Merced, California, Police Department employees have filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming it failed to calculate overtime pay correctly. The suit was filed on August 17, 2018 by three sergeants, two patrol officers, and one dispatcher in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. Specifically, these sergeants, officers, and dispatcher claim the city failed to ...

The Village of Villa Park, Illinois, is being sued by a former firefighter for alleged FLSA violations. Brandon Santiago filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other “similarly situated” firefighters, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois last week. Santiago claims the village failed to include various wage augments in his and other firefighters regular ...

The City of Wichita, Kansas, will pay six fire department arson investigators and their attorney almost $155,000 to settle unpaid overtime claims. The six investigators argued they should receive overtime similar to city police officers as opposed to firefighters. Here is more on those claims. Wichita Fire Investigators File FLSA Overtime Lawsuit The Settlement According to the Wichita Eagle, Wichita’s ...

According to the Elk Valley Times, the City of Fayetteville, Tennessee, is looking to correct overtime “pay issues” with local firefighters. City officials are poised to correct longstanding violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that may date back over the tenure of the past two fire chiefs. Fayetteville firefighters work a 28-day work period. The FLSA requires time ...

The County of Riverside, California, has settled a lawsuit filed by 24 former trainees over unpaid overtime. The 24 claimed the county failed to pay trainees for all hours worked during their 26-week training academy. The lawsuit was initially filed by Matthew Dashiell, a former sheriff’s deputy trainee. Dashiell was a trainee at the sheriff’s department training academy in 2013. ...

Four Louisiana paramedics claim their employer, the Parish of Plaquemines, Louisiana, failed to pay them any time and one-half over the past three years, despite working 7-day, 168-hour work shifts. The complaint, which was filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana contains some very unique and interesting facts. We have allegations of unpaid overtime, ...

Seven Battalion Chiefs from the Chesapeake Fire Department, in Chesapeake, Virginia, have filed a federal lawsuit looking for overtime pay. The Battalion Chiefs claim the city violated both the Fair Labor Standards Act and Virginia Gap Pay Act. The complaint, which was filed on July 24, 2018, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges ...

The City of Gloversville, New York, has agreed to pay city firefighters a total of $250,000 for alleged violations of the FLSA. According to The Daily Gazette, the city agreed to the settlement in an effort to “avoid more costly litigation with the [firefighters] union.” City firefighters claimed the city’s compensatory (comp) time practices violated the FLSA. Comp time is ...

More than 2,000 current and former California state firefighters will receive a total of $4.1 million in back wages following a settlement with the state of California. According to the Sacramento Bee, the back wages stem from hours worked while the firefighters were trainees at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Academy. These firefighter cadets were paid for ...