Public Sector Case Notes

• Citation: Vol. 28 No. 4
• Publication year: 2014
• Author: By Stewart Weinberg and Kerianne Steele

Public Sector Case Notes

By Stewart Weinberg and Kerianne Steele

Stewart Weinberg, a 1960 graduate of Boalt Hall, is a shareholder in Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld in Alameda, a union-side labor law firm. Mr. Weinberg specializes in the representation of unions and employees in the public sector. Kerianne Steele also is a shareholder in the firm. She provides general representation to labor unions, primarily in the public sector.

FIRE FIGHTERS

FLSA Fire Fighter Exemption Not Applicable to Dispatchers and Aeromedical Technicians Haro v. City of Los Angeles, 745 F.3d 1249 (9th Cir. 2014)

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exempts fire fighters from overtime for work beyond forty hours in one work week. Fire fighters are entitled to overtime only after working 212 hours in a twenty-eight-day period. The City of Los Angeles employs dispatchers and aeromedical technicians (paramedics assigned to air ambulance helicopters). The City declined to pay overtime to those workers, designating them for that purpose as "fire fighters." The employees challenged the City in federal court, where they prevailed. Section 203(y) of the FLSA defines "employee in fire protection" as an employee trained in fire suppression, who has legal authority and responsibility to engage in fire suppression, is employed by a fire department and is engaged in the prevention, control and extinguishment of fires or response to emergency situations. The trial court held that the dispatchers and aeromedical technicians did not meet the second criterion—that is, having the legal authority and responsibility to engage in fire suppression.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed that judgment, noting that exemptions under the FLSA should be construed narrowly. The court also ordered that the statute of limitations should be extended from two to three years, because the City's violation of the FLSA was willful. It also ordered liquidated damages in the amount of overtime owed (i.e., double damages) because the City could not show good faith or reasonable grounds for violating the FLSA. Agreeing with the Sixth and Seventh Circuits, and disagreeing with the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, the court held offsets for overtime payments the City had already made should be calculated on a week-by-week basis.

PEACE OFFICERS

County Complied With Its Meet and Confer Obligations Prior to Reducing Work Hours Santa Clara Correctional Peace Officers' Ass'n, Inc. v. County of Santa Clara, 224 Cal. App. 4th 1016 (2014)

Although peace...