Wage and Hour

Today’s burning question: If a battalion chief who is classified as an exempt executive is allowed to trade time with captains or lieutenants that are "non-exempt", would that have any bearing on whether the battalion chief qualifies as exempt or not? Answer: There are two tests to determine whether an employee is an exempt executive: the salary test and the primary duty test. An employee must satisfy both tests in order to be exempt and ineligible for overtime under the FLSA.

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Today’s burning question: I work for a small department that relies heavily on overtime to fill shifts to meet minimum staffing levels. I heard there is a limit to how many consecutive hours a firefighter can work. The number 48 has been used and rumor has it that it is an FLSA issue. Is there a limit to the hours that a firefighter can work?

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Five employees of a volunteer fire department in Pennsylvania have filed suit claiming they were improperly classified as partially-exempt 7k firefighters and denied overtime after they worked 40 hours per week. Dennis A. Szweda, Janelle Schmeck, David Ciabattoni, Reed A. Apostol and Donald Hirsch filed suit against the Exeter Township Volunteer Fire Department.

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Today’s burning question: I work for a small town fire department as one of two paid firefighters. Everyone else is a volunteer. The town manager refuses to pay us overtime until we work 212 hours in 28 days. Everywhere else I have ever worked, overtime had to be paid after 40 hours in a week. Can the town manager get away with this?

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Today’s burning question: Our department hosts an open house during fire prevention week. When the recession hit back in 2009 the department stopped compensating off-duty members who attended the open house. Can the department refuse to pay us for that time, and what would happen if one of our off-duty uncompensated members is injured at the open house?

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Today’s burning question: If a collective bargaining agreement requires a fire department to count vacation time and sick time as hours worked for overtime purposes, do these hours have to count toward hours worked for FLSA overtime purposes? Answer: No. The Fair Labor Standards Act only requires ...

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Today’s burning question: Our city calculates our hourly pay by dividing our salary by 56 hours, not 53 hours. In other words, our hourly rate for overtime purposes is calculated by dividing the weekly salary by 56 hours. Shouldn’t they use 53 hours since the FLSA states that is the maximum allowable number of hours per week for firefighters?

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Today’s burning question: Our fire department recently hired its first full-time firefighters to supplement our volunteers and part-time personnel. Historically we paid our part-time personnel overtime after 40 hours a week. Our new full-time personnel have been designated as being subject to the 207(k) partial exemption...

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Today’s burning question: I am a line battalion chief in a department that classifies all chief officers as white-collar exempt executives. As exempt executives we are not eligible for overtime. Our association obtained an opinion letter from a law firm that concluded line chiefs do not qualify as white-collar executives under either the traditional analysis nor under the 2004 First Responder Regulations.

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Today’s burning question: We are losing senior instructors from our fire academy because they are being promoted to Battalion Chiefs (or higher), at which point we cannot compensate them to teach on their days off… not even straight time. I am told this is because they are exempt under the FLSA but cannot find any legal clarification that explains what is going on. Why can’t we at least pay these officers straight time to come back and teach on their days off?

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In a long awaited decision the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Chicago in a case where police officers sought compensation for the off-duty use of their smartphones. Sergeant Jeffery Allen claimed he and his fellow officers in the Bureau of Organized Crime were required to use their smartphones to communicate while off-duty, but were not compensated for their time.

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It is my pleasure to welcome my good friend and colleague Bill Maccarone to cyberspace with the creation of a new blog called FirefighterOvertime.org. Bill and I have been teaching the FLSA for Fire Departments program for the past two years, and Bill's plan is to pass along his accumulated knowledge – together with the latest in FLSA headlines – to firefighters everywhere.

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Today’s burning question: Are battalion chiefs considered to be exempt executives under the FLSA and not eligible for overtime? Answer: That is the key question in a recently filed suit out of Vancouver, Washington. Eight current and former Vancouver battalion chiefs are suing the department

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Kansas City, Missouri is facing another fire department related FLSA lawsuit over the way it pays its EMS personnel. The class action lawsuit claims that despite losing EMS related FLSA lawsuits in 2014 and 2015 that cost the city $3.5 million, it continues to miscalculate overtime for its EMS personnel.

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