Tag Archives: first responders

Today’s FLSA Question: Does longevity pay need to be included in a firefighter’s regular rate of pay? What if the firefighter receives longevity pay in a lump sum every year? Yes, most longevity payments need to be included in the regular rate. Whether the money is paid annually, quarterly, weekly, or even hourly does not change this fact. Receiving longevity ...

Today’s FLSA Question:  I am a fire lieutenant and the president of my local firefighters’ union. We work a 48/96 schedule (48 hours on duty followed by 96 hours off), and utilize a 14-day work period. I know the FLSA requires overtime for all hours worked over 106 in a 14-day work period. We have a unique provision in our ...

There are numerous misconceptions surrounding the FLSA. Included in these misconceptions is that the FLSA does not apply to part-time, per diem, or paid-on-call firefighters. Nothing could be further from the truth. The FLSA does not draw any distinction between full-time or “less than full-time” employees. The general rule is that all employees are subject to the requirements of FLSA. ...

Former Paxton, IL, Chief of Police Robert Bane filed a lawsuit in federal court last week seeking money damages for unpaid overtime wages, additional unspecified money damages for retaliation under the FLSA, and a court order requiring that the city reinstate the chief to his former position. The lawsuit follows Chief Bane’s termination by the city in August 2017. Chief ...

Providence firefighters have accepted the city’s offer of $5.9 million to settle numerous grievances and lawsuits dating back to 2013 over the way the city paid firefighters. There are several different components to the settlement. Here are a few of the highlights. The settlement resolves a lawsuit originally filed in 2013, which alleged the city failed to pay overtime to ...

Today’s FLSA Question I am the administrator for a nonprofit 501(c)(3) volunteer fire company. We are in the process of hiring our own full-time dispatchers. Currently the county provides dispatch services, however we are transitioning from a completely volunteer organization to a combination department. We want to mirror the county’s compensatory time (comp time) policy. All county employees, including county ...

The City of Palo Alto, California continues to settle claims for unpaid overtime with city firefighters. The city has paid more than $1.5 million in the past year to firefighters and other city employees for failing to include all remuneration in the regular rate of pay for FLSA overtime purposes. Some of these payments stem from a 2016 lawsuit filed ...

The City of Chula Vista, California has agreed to pay over 100 firefighters just over $1 million in back wages and other damages for FLSA violations. The firefighters filed a lawsuit to recover back wages and additional damages in August of 2016. The firefighters claimed the city failed to calculate the regular rate of pay correctly. Proper calculation of the ...

Approximately 119 police officers from Tupelo, Mississippi will be receiving more than $857,000 in back wages following a Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division investigation. The DOL determined the city’s “police department failed to adequately record hours worked by police officers” and did not maintain proper records related to “overtime hours or compensatory time owed to officers” as ...

Horry County Fire Rescue wants to hire at least 15 new part-time firefighters. The part-time firefighters would be utilized as “fill-ins” for full-time firefighters in an effort to reduce mandatory overtime in the department. Mandatory overtime is not a new problem for Horry County Fire Rescue. Here is a story from this past summer that first detailed the County’s mandatory ...