Tag Archives: overtime

This past week two unions that represent New York City EMS workers and fire inspectors filed a lawsuit against the city. The suit accuses the city of refusing to release documents related to the race, gender, rank, and disciplinary history of both FDNY and other city workers. The union is seeking this information in an effort to illustrate EMS workers ...

The Department of Fire and Public Safety in Maui County, Hawaii, has seen a dramatic increase in overtime following a recent change to the collective bargaining agreement between the county and firefighters. The county’s internal auditor has a plan to potentially reduce overtime, but the fire chief does not seem to concur with the auditor’s recommendation. Maui County Fire Department’s ...

On October 26th, firefighters in Allen Park Michigan filed a lawsuit against the City of Allen Park alleging the city has not honored the labor contract between the City of Allen Park and the Allen Park Professional Firefighters Association (IAFF Local 1410). The 2013-2016 collective bargaining agreement between the city and firefighters contained a 2.5% wage increase due in 2016. ...

The Richmond Virginia Fire Department is short twenty-four firefighters. This shortage has created a drastic increase in the department’s overtime budget. According to Fire Chief Melvin Carter between $85,000 and $135,000 is spent on overtime every two weeks. Even Keith Andes, President of the Richmond Firefighters Association, agrees that spending that much on overtime is “unsustainable.” The department has already ...

This past July the Spokane Valley Fire Department (SVFD) filed an unusual lawsuit against the union that represents Spokane Valley firefighters (IAFF Local 3701). SVFD wanted the court to issue a “declaratory judgement” that SVFD battalion chiefs and fire marshals were exempt from receiving FLSA overtime. A declaratory judgement is when a court is asked to issue a formal opinion ...

On October 13th, the 3rd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals upheld a lower federal court decision that required an employer pay employees for short breaks. The FLSA has long mandated breaks less than 20 minutes be paid, however this employer made a rather unique argument that may just be worth a closer look. Progressive Business Publications (Progressive) employed hourly telephone ...

Today’s FLSA Question I run payroll for a municipal fire department. The fire chief wants to give firefighters an opportunity to work part time on their days off, staffing a city ambulance that transports sick and elderly patients home from the hospital, to doctors’ appointments, dialysis treatments, etc. Firefighters will be paid their regular hourly rate for all hours worked ...

The Austin City Council is set to review a new contract between the city and firefighters later this week. The new agreement changes, among other things, the way overtime is paid to the city’s firefighters. The agreement comes on the heels of a recent report that found overtime for the Austin Fire Department had increased 147 percent between 2014 and ...

Today’s FLSA Question I attended one of your Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Fire Departments seminars last year. I learned a great deal about the FLSA over those three days. However, I just took a promotional examination for deputy chief within my fire department and found the following question: Which of the following must be true in order for ...

Today’s FLSA Question I am a fire chief. My EMS chief wants us to consider a CPR notification system known as PulsePoint. It notifies trained citizens (and off-duty firefighters) when there is a CPR incident nearby so that immediate aid can be rendered. It’s a wonderful system, and as this video shows, one of the best uses for it could involve ...