Alabama City Settles Overtime Suit for $30k
The City of Hanceville, Alabama has settled an Fair Labor Standards Act overtime case that was filed last December by four firefighters for $30,000.
Gary Mikus, James Butler, Michael Cornett and Zachary Thomas filed suit in US District Court claiming the city required them to work 56 hours a week without paying them overtime. Under 29 USC §207(k) and 29 CFR 553.201, firefighters may be required to work up to 53 hours per week before becoming eligible for overtime.
The settlement drew the ire of Mayor Kenneth Nail who claims that he and one of the councilman “have got steam coming out of our ears over taxpayers having to pay out this money.” The firefighters, who earn between $8.53 and $9.66 per hour, were entitled to roughly three hours of overtime per week under the FLSA, or $12.80 to $14.49 per week.
The FLSA is a complicated area of the law, one that poses difficult challenges for firefighters and fire departments. We will be discussing these challenges in our new three-day program, Fair Labor Standards Act for Fire Departments, being held in Las Vegas – February 9-11, 2016, hosted by the Clark County Fire Department. For more information, including $49/night rooms at the Orleans Hotel & Casino, click here.
Right. And Mr. Honorable Mayor and Councilman wouldn’t be upset if the government was screwing them out of money. Laughable.
$8.53 – $9.66 per hours, must be thousands of applications for that job. That high hourly rate doesn’t include food stamps, does it?
You know, it take a special kind of creep to pay folks who risk their lives that little and then complain about it as if they were paying them $350/hour like an attorney!!! No conscience…. “[We’ve] got steam coming out of our ears over taxpayers having to pay out this money.” How do folks like that look at themselves in the mirror… or go to church and pretend its somehow consistent with their beliefs… And yes, I would imagine they would qualify for some sort of public assistance… like Walmart workers…