Battle Creek Settles FLSA Suit for $1.5 Million

The City of Battle Creek, Michigan has agreed to settle a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case with its firefighters for $1.5 million. The firefighters alleged that the city had been improperly calculating their overtime compensation.

The suit was originally filed by 57 firefighters in October, 2013, although by the end a total of 70 firefighters had joined in. Among the allegations in the suit:

• At all times relevant hereto prior to July 29, 2012, the City did not have an established, regularly recurring work period between seven (7) and twenty-eight (28) consecutive days for Plaintiffs.
• Instead, at all times relevant hereto prior to July 29, 2012, the City had an established work period of fifty-six (56) consecutive days for Plaintiffs.
• Because the City failed to establish a regularly recurring work period between seven (7) and twenty-eight (28) consecutive days for Plaintiffs prior to July 29, 2012, the City is not entitled to the exemption provided in 29 U.S.C. § 207(k) for any time prior to July 29, 2012, and has a statutory obligation to pay overtime compensation to Plaintiffs for any and all work performed by Plaintiffs in excess of forty (40) hours in a work week, defined as seven (7) consecutive days, for all times relevant hereto prior to July 29, 2012
• The City calculated overtime compensation for Plaintiffs based solely on Plaintiffs’ hourly base pay from the salary schedules attached as appendices to the Contracts, without including the other elements of remuneration. The overtime compensation should have been calculated on Plaintiffs’ “Regular Rate” as defined under the FLSA and related regulations.
• At all times relevant hereto, the City failed to pay wages or overtime compensation to Plaintiffs for any work performed prior to their assigned shifts, including time in which Plaintiffs were required to travel to their home fire station and gather their work equipment and then travel to a newly assigned fire station, all of which occurred before the beginning of Plaintiffs’ shifts.
• At all times relevant hereto, the City improperly rounded down the hours when Plaintiffs worked less than fifteen (15) minutes and failed to pay wages or overtime compensation to Plaintiffs for that time.

It is unclear from the settlement which of the above allegations were found to be meritorious, although my guess is the paragraph that is in bold face was the most likely. Many fire departments today are finding themselves in violation of the FLSA for failing to include all relevant compensation when calculating “regular rate”, and instead use an employee’s base rate. It can indeed prove to be a costly mistake.

The settlement calls for the payment of $1.17 million in damages to the firefighters, $330,000 in attorneys fees, and up to $20,000 in court costs. As the attached settlement agreement indicates, each of the firefighters received a designated payment for damages and the identical amount as “liquidated damages” as required under the FLSA.

Here is a copy of the original complaint: Battle Creek

Here is a copy of the settlement agreement: Battle Creek Settlement