Tag Archives: regular rate

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 ...

Two-hundred and twenty-three Fort Wayne, Indiana firefighters have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging the City of Fort Wayne isn’t calculating their overtime pay as required by the FLSA. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana on August 15, 2024. The firefighters claim the city is calculating their regular and ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I have noticed several recruiting announcements lately where municipalities and private corporations are offering new paramedics sign-on, retention, and even relocation bonuses. These bonuses can be significant. In fact, one agency is offering a $10,000 sign-on bonus, a $10,000 retention bonus (after completing 2 years) and another $5,000 as a relocation bonus. Do these bonuses need to ...

A Lancaster, Pennsylvania, firefighter has dropped an FLSA regular rate lawsuit pending a potential settlement. Geoff Stone, the president of the Lancaster Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 319 filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other firefighters in federal court in October, 2023. Chief among his allegations was that the city failed to include longevity pay in his [and other ...

Two similar FLSA lawsuits have been filed by firefighters from two different West Virginia cities in the past week. The first, which my friend and colleague Curt Varone covered on his Fire Law Blog last Wednesday, contained allegations that the City of Clarksburg was improperly calculating its firefighter’s regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. [You can find ...

A lieutenant from the Warren Township Fire Department, in Warren, Ohio has filed a lawsuit against his employer claiming the department’s pay practices violate several provisions of the FLSA.  Lieutenant Gregory Wrightsman filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other “similarly situated” individuals [i.e., other firefighters that may eventually join in on the lawsuit] in the United States District ...

A federal judge has ruled that an FLSA lawsuit filed by a lone former Independence, Missouri firefighter can move forward as a collective action. A collective action under the FLSA is a mechanism that allows similarly situated current and former employees the ability to band together in an FLSA lawsuit against their current or former employer. A collective action is ...

What began as a typical lawsuit over breach of contract and the inclusion of longevity in a couple dozen Mississippi firefighter’s regular rate of pay in late 2022, ended in a rather unusual court ruling this past week. A federal magistrate Judge has ordered the enforcement of a settlement agreement negotiated between the City of Biloxi, Mississippi and thirty-five city ...

The City of Los Angeles is facing an FLSA lawsuit from four city police officers. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California contains allegations that the city is violating the FLSA by failing to include all “remuneration” in the officers’ regular rate of pay. More specifically, the officers claim the city ...

A large group of FDNY emergency medical technicians and paramedics filed a federal lawsuit late last week alleging that the City of New York’s pay practices violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit, which contains several claims including uncompensated off-the clock work, regular rate violations, and failure to timely pay overtime compensation was filed in the U.S. District ...