Texas City firefighters sue over overtime pay

By T.J. Aulds in The Galveston County Daily News
Fifty-nine of Texas City’s firefighters have sued the city, claiming they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay. The lawsuit claims the city miscalculated overtime pay and failed to pay firefighters for time spent in required training. The misapplied salary figures go back more than 30 years, the firefighters union president said, and affect not only firefighters’ pay but their retirement plans as well.

The lawsuit also claims the city’s practices are in violation of Fair Labor Standards Act.

“We found that we hadn’t been paid correctly for decades,” union President Steve Cooley said. “We didn’t find out about it until this year.”

At the heart of the issue is how firefighters’ hourly base pay is figured. Firefighters are hired at a base rate of pay but also receive incentive pay for qualifying as a certified medical responder for Emergency Medical Services.

There also is incentive pay for college classes and for being bilingual. EMS incentive pay is about $400 a month, city officials said. The incentive pay is paid as a monthly stipend and not figured as part of the hourly rate.

The conflict arises when a firefighter works overtime. The city has been factoring overtime pay at 1½ times the base hourly rate.

The firefighters argue federal law requires the incentive pay be broken down as an hourly rate, as well and must be factored in for overtime purposes.

Firefighters work 106 hours per two-week pay period or about 229 hours a month. During any pay period, any work more than the 106 hours is supposed to be paid at 1½ times the hourly rate.

How that hourly rate is factored is a key component to the lawsuit. For example, a firefighter who makes $17 an hour and has the EMS certification and works 130 hours in a two week pay period would be paid 106 hours in straight time at $17 an hour plus 24 hours of overtime at $25.50 an hour.

With the incentive pay of $400, the firefighter’ gross paycheck that month is about $5,228. The firefighters argue the gross pay should be $5,363.36 based on an overtime pay rate of $28.32 an hour after the incentive pay is broken down by the hour.

That amounts to an annual difference of about $1,624 if the hours worked each month are about the same. In five years, which is as far back the firefighters’ lawsuit can go in seeking back pay, that individual would be owed about $8,121.

Pay rates vary based on a firefighter’s years of service and rank.

In addition, Cooley said the lawsuit seeks pay for hours firefighters spent in mandatory training, including courses on getting the EMS certification.

Mayor Matt Doyle said the city looks at the incentive pay as a monthly bonus and argues it should not be a part of the hourly rate but concedes a judge will have to make the final decision.

“I think the way we pay our firemen is fair,” he said. “If they feel they have been wronged, then they deserve their day in court.”

Doyle said Texas City isn’t the only city that factors the incentive pay as a bonus and not as part of the hourly rate. Cooley counters that most full-time fire departments, including Galveston, pay overtime with the incentive pay factored in.

Both sides agreed there won’t be a settlement in the case.

Cooley noted the lawsuit could have a far-reaching impact on how the city pays it public safety employees. The police department offers similar incentive pay clauses, and those also are not factored into the overtime rate.

Cooley said he expects that should the firefighters win their lawsuit, the police officers would follow suit. Because of the overtime structure at the police department, the fiscal impact should a judge decide the city violated federal labor laws could reach the millions of dollars, he said.