In 2020, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety terminated Christopher Stockli’s employment at the Pasquotank Correctional Institution. Stockli challenged his termination through a contested case in North Carolina’s Office of Administrative Hearings. An administrative law judge entered a final decision reinstating Stockli and awarding him back pay. That back pay award included his salary…
The City of Hartford and the Hartford Police Union are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. As of March 3, 2017, there were five police captains employed by the Department. Beginning on that date those police captains began serially retiring over the course of approximately 15 months, until the last of them retired on June…
Officer Michael Fiocca was assigned to work in the Philadelphia Police Department Forensic Science Unit (FSU). Starting in 2015 or 2016, Fiocca and the other officers in the FSU gained access to the daily attendance records sheets (DARS) of all officers in the FSU. Fiocca’s access to DARS enabled him to see the vacation and…
From Florida:Question: I have a question regarding the City of Tampa’s practice of temporarily rescheduling a police officer’s work schedule in order to staff a city-sponsored special event such as a parade. We believe it’s done to avoid paying overtime that would be paid in order to staff the event. For example, if a police…
Local 1953 of the International Association of Firefighters represents the firefighters who work for Perkins Township in Ohio. When the parties were unable to reach agreement on a new contract the matter was referred to “binding conciliation,” the phrase Ohio uses to describe binding arbitration. When the Township challenged the Arbitrator’s award, the matter wound…
Sanja Drinks-Bruder has been employed as a Niagara Falls, New York police officer for approximately 25 years and is represented for bargaining purposes by the Niagara Falls Police Club. On October 20, 2016, at approximately 6:10 a.m., she was sent to the scene of a fatal traffic accident. Despite her repeated requests to be relieved…
The collective bargaining agreement between Middletown Township, New Jersey and the Middletown Township Police Superior Officers Association contains a clause that “Management has the right to change shifts or the hours worked but must negotiate any impact of its changes in reference to changes, wages, overtime and other compensation with the union.” A different labor…
From New York Question: A little background: We work 12-hour tours. We are permitted to work a maximum of 18 hours continuously. Minimum manning is six dispatchers with one supervisor. NYC has a policy for “equalization of overtime.” Employees have an annual overtime card that is maintained by the supervisor. Employees that have the least…
From Oklahoma Question: If a firefighter agrees to voluntarily work overtime, can he/she pay someone else cash to cover their overtime shift and collect overtime from the City when they actually didn’t work it? Answer: There’s little case law out there to provide guidance. Our guess is that if the employees engage in such a…
The collective bargaining agreement between Genesee County, Michigan and the Police Officer Association of Michigan has a safety clause, providing “the Employer will always consider the personal safety of the employees in establishing operational procedures.” The contract also gives the employer “the right to determine, establish and modify scheduling and manpower requirements, including, but not…
Frazier Caudle, Nikeith Goins, William James, Sholanda Miller, and Donald Smalls were all members of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department’s First District Focus Mission Unit (FMU), a specialized plainclothes unit composed of “productive” patrol officers who “graduated to” FMU duty. Their commander decided to require the FMU officers to submit applications to remain…
Public safety employers continue to be bedeviled by some of the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). High up there on the list of problems is how to calculate the overtime rate under the FLSA. Here’s a primer on the basics. The starting point – and a critical one – is to realize…
Teresa Anderson is a sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department. LAPD terminated Anderson, citing the fact that she “neglected to request compensation after working overtime,” that she “neglected to report misconduct after witnessing unidentified sworn officers discourage subordinates from submitting requests for overtime compensation,” and that she lied in a deposition when she stated…
The collective bargaining agreement between the City of Trenton, New Jersey and Local 11 of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) has a clause dealing with short-duration pre- and post-shift work: “It is recognized that employees may be required for the purpose of muster at the commencement of a tour to report in advance of the…
A group of approximately 4300 current and former New York City police sergeants sued the City of New York claiming systematic violations of their overtime rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Because of the sheer volume of plaintiffs, the City and the Plaintiffs agreed in May of 2005 to limit depositions to “test plaintiffs”…
The collective bargaining agreement between the State Police Association of Massachusetts and the State of Massachusetts contains an arbitration clause. On December 31, 2002, a State Police detective sergeant assigned to the Worcester district attorney’s office filed a grievance alleging that the Department had failed to pay him for overtime worked. When the grievance was…
Kristofer Lewallen began his duties as a canine officer for Scott County, Tennessee on July 1, 2006 when the Sheriff ordered him to pick up a black Labrador dog named “J.J.” The Sheriff told Lewallen to begin working with the dog and eventually J.J. would be trained as a narcotics detection dog. J.J. lived with…
Melvin Kindle worked for the City of Jeffersontown, Kentucky as a police officer; Bradley Silveria and Diedra Adkins were dispatchers for the Police Department. On October 27, 2006, the three tendered a report pursuant to Kentucky’s Whistleblower Act. The report alleged that a lieutenant colonel with the Department (1) violated federal and state wage and…
The District of Columbia and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) are parties to a collective bargaining agreement governing the rank-and-file members of the Metropolitan Police Department. The FOP filed a grievance challenging what it believed to be an inappropriate delay in paying overtime for police officers who worked a detail providing security and escort…
A police officer working for the North Hampton Township, Massachusetts Police Department was injured in an on-duty automobile accident in July 2007. The officer eventually returned to work on a light-duty basis, but continued to participate in physical therapy, including hyperbaric oxygen treatment. When the Department denied his request for overtime pay for the time…
An often-argued issue in disciplinary arbitrations is whether an award of back pay can properly include an award of missed overtime. One of the more respected arbitrators in the country, Stanley Sergent, recently held that back pay awards could include compensation for missed overtime opportunities. The case came to Arbitrator Sergent via an unusual route.…
For many years, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections had assigned voluntary overtime to the least-senior corrections officer available. When the Department changed its practice and instituted a rotational list where employees who worked involuntary overtime would be rotated to the bottom of the list, the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union challenged the decision in arbitration.…
William Woodman worked as a police officer with the Hazen, Arkansas Police Department from 1999 to 2008. Woodman was assigned police dog Arko. Woodman kept Arko at his residence when he was not working, and he was responsible for the care and training of Arko, which included feeding Arko twice each day, providing Arko with…
The voters of the City of Crowley, Louisiana approved a sales tax proposition authorizing the City to levy and collect a sales tax of one-half of one percent whose proceeds are to be used for the purpose of City employees’ salary increase, with one-third of the levy proceeds paid to all fire personnel. Under Louisiana…
Towards the end of his shift, a corrections officer working for Broome County, New York was bitten by an inmate. The officer remained on site after the end of his shift, and obtained medical treatment for the injury. The officer later sought four hours of overtime for the time spent in receiving treatment. An arbitrator…
