A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed an FLSA misclassification lawsuit filed by a former firefighter/medic without the need for a trail. United States District Court Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks granted Jasper County’s request to dismiss the 2021 lawsuit filed by Heather Davis, a former firefighter/medic for Jasper County’s Emergency Services Department. In the lawsuit, Davis alleged that the ...
Read More »Tag Archives: Wage and Hour Division
LA County Fire Prevails in Second Lawsuit Following Recruit Academy Quarantine
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a class of more than 150 current and former LA County firefighters alleging that the county failed to pay recruit firefighters for all hours “worked” during the course of five separate recruit academies spanning an eight-month period in 2020. The firefighter’s claims centered around the county’s decision to offer a compressed ...
Read More »MO Firefighter’s FLSA Regular Rate Lawsuit Expands to Include More Plaintiffs
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 ...
Read More »Lockheed Martin Settles 2022 FLSA Lawsuit with Firefighters for Close to $1 Million
Lockheed Martin [a global aerospace and defense contractor] has settled a 2022 FLSA lawsuit filed by a group of forty-nine industrial firefighters for a total of $949,996. The crux of the firefighter’s claims was that Lockheed Martin only paid its in-house firefighters’ overtime after they worked more than 48 hours per week. The FLSA requires non-public agency fire departments, pay ...
Read More »FDNY Facing Another FLSA Suit from Medics and EMTs
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 ...
Read More »Fire Prevention and Investigators, On-Call Pay, Regular Rate, and the FLSA
Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief for mid-sized full-time fire department. Our fire prevention / investigation division has two full-time personnel that take turns being on-call after hours and weekends. Both of these personnel have take-home vehicles and respond after-hours to any confirmed structure fires or any suspicious fires. They divide on-call time between the two assigned personnel, ...
Read More »Settlement Reached in Mobile K9 Officers’ FLSA Suit
The City of Mobile, Alabama has reached a settlement with three police officers assigned to the city’s K9 division following an FLSA lawsuit over unpaid worktime. The three claimed the city failed to compensate them for some “off-the-clock” work necessary to care for their assigned K9s. The FLSA and Department of Labor regulations require employers compensate overtime eligible employees for ...
Read More »DOL Investigation Finds Wildland Firefighters and Truck Drivers Owed More Than $150K in Back Wages and Overtime Pay
The Department of Labor (DOL) has found that a federal contractor hired by the United States government to combat “some of the nation’s worst wildfires” failed to properly compensate dozens of firefighters and truck drivers in violation of several federal statutes and DOL regulations. The violations occurred between June 2019 and October 2021 when these workers were deployed to fight ...
Read More »Discretionary Bonus for Working Overtime, the Regular Rate, and the FLSA
Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a third-party EMS agency that contracts 911 service for a rural county. Our agency is struggling to find medics and EMTs. As a result, overtime and mandatory overtime has turned into the norm. In an effort to incentivize employees to take additional shifts, my company has begun offering a bonus in addition to overtime ...
Read More »Four Florida Firefighters File FLSA Suit Against Town
Four Micanopy Fire and Rescue firefighters have filed a federal lawsuit against their employer alleging violations of the FLSA. According to the town’s website, the Micanopy Fire and Rescue Department responds to over 400 calls per year over an area of fifty-three square miles and serves a population around 10,000 people. The department is staffed by a full time fire ...
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