Tag Archives: Fair Labor Standards Act

The State of Tennessee is taking an interesting and innovative approach to combating the nation-wide problems associated with a lack of volunteer firefighters. Late last week, the Tennessee Senate passed a bill aimed at providing financial incentives for volunteer firefighters in that state. The incentive, which is anticipated to cost the state almost $5 million for fiscal year 2021-2022, provides ...

On April 9, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—the arm of the DOL responsible for enforcing the FLSA—officially rescinded a controversial employer-friendly enforcement practice implemented less than a year ago. As a general rule, the FLSA requires liquidated damages be assessed after finding an employer violated the Act’s minimum wage or overtime requirements. Liquidated ...

The City of Selma, Alabama is the latest city facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by city firefighters. Three Assistant Fire Marshals/Fire Inspectors filed the suit, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, on April 19, 2021. Richard C. Byrd, Willie J. Mason Jr., and Aeneas L. Pettway allege that the city failed to pay them overtime ...

A group of 225 current and former federal correctional employees filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to pay them required hazardous duty pay and environmental differential pay. Additionally, the plaintiffs also allege violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The plaintiffs are all current and former employees at the Allenwood Federal ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I have a question about mandatory overtime and the FLSA. If a firefighter is ordered to work an extra shift, doesn’t the FLSA require time and one-half pay for that shift? This is my situation. I am a full-time paid firefighter/paramedic. We work a 24/48 schedule with an assigned Kelly Day every three weeks. This combination results ...

The Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department is facing a harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by a former city firefighter. The lawsuit, brought by former firefighter Jyan Harris in 2018, alleges the city improperly fired him in for “double-dipping” on several occasions in 2015. Harris’s trial began last Thursday, and early indications show that the Kansas City Fire Department’s recordkeeping practices ...

Firefighters in Morgantown, West Virginia have demanded a public hearing with the city’s civil service commission following allegations of retaliation for refusing to settle a 2019 lawsuit over holiday pay. In June 2019, fifty-eight Morgantown firefighters filed the lawsuit alleging the City of Morgantown violated a West Virginia law that requires either paid time off, or time-and-one-half pay for all ...

A federal magistrate Judge has ruled that an FLSA overtime lawsuit brought by more than 450 Kansas City, Missouri firefighters can continue as a collective action. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2019 by only two city firefighters, had grown to include more than 450 total firefighters. The city argued the firefighters lacked a “common interest” and as a ...

A Wake County, North Carolina paramedic has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county’s time tracking system fails to pay paramedics overtime as required by the FLSA. Paramedic Steven Gorrell filed this lawsuit, on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on March 16, 2021. [As a ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid firefighter working for a small fire department with 13 full-time firefighters. We work 24 hours on duty, followed by a 48 hours off-duty for an average of 56 hours per week. My department has a strange way of paying overtime. Instead of paying firefighters for overtime worked in a regular bi-weekly paycheck; ...