California Police Fire Wars Arrest and South Carolina Overtime
Its been a busy week fire law wise with a number of stories breaking that are certainly of great interest. So many cases…. so little time….
Let’s start with the newest police fire wars case, this one out of Chula Vista, California where a firefighter was placed in handcuffs by a California Highway Patrol Officer on I805 in a dispute over where an engine was parked. Dave Statter’s on this one.
San Diego, California News Station – KFMB Channel 8 – cbs8.com
To sum up… nothing new to add. Its the same old police fire war battle. Until we start seeing police officers arrested for interfering with firefighters in the performance of their duties (also a crime in most states), this non-sense will continue. BTW – when was the last time a police officer arrested another police officer because he didn’t like where the officer parked his cruiser??? Somehow they find a way to work those kinds of childish disputes out without putting each other in handcuffs.
Another case of interest involved a wage and hour dispute out of South Carolina. Twenty-six current and former employees of Charleston County Emergency medical Services have filed a class action lawsuit in federal court claiming the county has not been properly paying them for hours worked in excess of forty hours.
The complaint also alleges:
Plaintiffs and other members of the Plaintiff class previously raised or articulated their concerns to officials within Defendant’s County Administration as well as within Defendant’s EMS Department about the Department’s policies and practices regarding the recording of compensable time, the calculation of overtime compensation and incorrect hourly pay rate; however, Plaintiffs were intimidated and coerced to continue working under these unlawful conditions by their immediate supervisors, by the EMS Department upper management, and by Defendant’s Human Resources Department.
The complaint has three counts, one under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), one under the South Carolina Payment of Wages Act, and the third as a simple breach of contract claim.
Here is a copy of the complaint: Charleston County EMS
Incidentally, the Charleston County FLSA suit comes on the heals of another suit filed by several Charleston firefighters who allege they are not even being paid minimum wage once all of the wage and hour calculations are factored in. For the FLSA junkies out there (Chip Kirwin), it would appear there is a whole lot going on – including fluctuating hourly wages depending on how many hours you work in a week… NO I AM NOT KIDDING!!!!
Here is a copy of that complaint.Charleston SC
South Carolina has it’s own rules.
It seems that the crux of these wage disputes is the Fair Labor Standards Act which, like the Right to Work Law, is anything but fair. I believe the FLSA was created by the federal government so they could stick it to federal Firefighters requiring them to work long hours without fairly compensating them. Am I correct in believing this or was I just fed some bad scoop?
It seems that the crux of most of these pay issues is the FLSA and it’s anything but fair. I’m under the impression that the federal government created this law in order to screw federal Firefighters out of overtime while requiring them to work long hours. Is this true? It also seems that the law is so vague that municipalities can pretty much interpret it however they like. If this is true, how does the FLSA continue to stand up in court?
Huh. Two posts that state essentially the same thing. I’m new to this whole disqus thing or whatever it is. I’m old too.
Steve
The FLSA was created to ensure that unscrupulous employers (think Walmart in today’s terms… but the Robber-Barons of the early 20th Century originally) did not abuse employees by paying them less than a designated minimum wage, or making them work excessive hours without extra compensation.
At the time it was inconceivable that government would pull the same kind of crap that was being done in the private sector… but in time the FLSA was extended to the public sector… after a few false starts… It has applied to the public sector since 1985.
It was never intended to be a vehicle to stick it to federal firefighters… although due to the way it was written it excluded them from the same 40 hour… or even 53 hour protection afforded to private sector and public sector firefighters.