Vermont City Looks to Pay Firefighters Overtime to Combat Rise in Overdose Calls

The City of Burlington, Vermont is taking a bold new step to help combat the “crushing number of overdose calls” that they respond to daily. According to WCAX news, the Burlington Fire Department is requesting the City Council allocate overtime funds for two city firefighters to work twelve hours per day, seven days per week staffing an emergency response vehicle designated to respond to reported overdoses or unresponsive patients. This vehicle would respond in place of the typical fire department response of an engine or ladder company and an ambulance for certain specific calls. The response vehicle will carry Narcan and other essential medical equipment that could be needed by the firefighters if a patient is suffering from an overdose. . .Continue Reading

Think the FLSA does not affect your fire department?

Think again... No other law impacts fire department operations nor costs local governments more than the FLSA.

Career, Combination, and even

Volunteer organizations are all

impacted by the FLSA.

FLSA for Fire Departments is a comprehensive overview of wage and hour issues in the fire and emergency services. This twenty-four hour (3-day) live seminar addresses the most important topics governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, including overtime requirements, maximum hours, determining regular rate, payments made to volunteers, comp time, substitutions, record keeping and much, much more.

This program would benefit all fire and emergency service leaders, municipal finance, payroll, and HR personnel, as well as any other administrators responsible for paying firefighters. Additionally, union officials and attorneys responsible for collective bargaining would also benefit greatly from the program.

Experienced Firefighter Instructors:

Curt Varone, JD, EFO

Bill Maccarone, JD, MS

Brian Massatt, JD, MPA

FLSA for Fire Departments

Live Webinar

Reviews

"The FLSA is a highly detail oriented subject that can be a bit dry. The presenters kept the lecture engaging and easy to digest."

"I Loved the Real World Examples!!!!"

"All of the material was useful and engaging."

"I think the material was great and I felt you answered many questions as we went along. It was also very nice to do the Q&A after each day of the program."

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, so at least one person is always available. In the event either one is called back after hours, they receive time and one-half pay for that time. Earlier this year we began providing the on-call personnel assigned to prevention / investigations a small stipend for the time spent on-call. The person on-call receives an additional $25 per day and an additional $50 for every holiday they are on-call. This stipend is intended to compensate the on-call personnel for any inconvenience associated with being on-call. We have not included this stipend in their regular rate of pay when cashing out compensatory time and/or calculating overtime. Can a stipend like this be excluded from an employee’s regular rate?

Answer: . . .Continue Reading