Fairfax County Settles FLSA Suit With Fire Captains for $7.85 Million

After losing at the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals, Fairfax County has opted to cut its losses and settle a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit with 174 fire captains for $7.85 million.

The county had long considered the captains to be white-collar executive employees who are exempt from eligibility for overtime. Back in 2014, a group of captains filed suit claiming they were improperly classified as exempt. The district court agreed with the county that the captains were executives, but on appeal the 4^th Circuit reversed.

In a ruling issued last June, the 4^th Circuit said:

• When an emergency call comes in, it takes priority, and the Captains do not have discretion to decline to respond.
• [U]nlike their superiors, Captains are part of the core group of firefighters who are required to respond to a typical call; an engine cannot leave the station without its Captain on board.
• In this way, the Captains are quite unlike the “high-level” fire officials… with the “discretion to determine whether and where their assistance is needed.”
• [W]here the record evidence will not allow an employer to meet its heavy burden of showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that an exemption applies, then summary judgment is appropriate.
• On the record here, no reasonable jury could find that the County has shown by clear and convincing evidence that the Captains’ “primary duty” is management or management-related. The Captains therefore are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

Rather than appealing the ruling to the US Supreme Court, the county began paying the captains overtime in September. They also reached a settlement with the captains totaling $7.85 million, with $1.4 million of that being designated as attorneys fees.

More on the story.

Here is a copy of the 4^th Circuit’s ruling: morrison-v-fairfax