Two former workers at a North Carolina volunteer fire company have sued, saying they were not paid extra as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. One of them said he was fired for complaining about it.
They sued the Robinson Volunteer Fire Department and its chief in the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Their names were Akash Patel and Aaron Garbus.
Since 2016, both Patel and Garbus have worked for the fire company. In 2023, Garbus quit on his own, but in August 2024, Patel was fired. This is what the suit says about the facts:
- During their time working for Defendants, Plaintiffs got monthly paychecks from Defendants that did not properly record or pay them for all the extra hours they worked.
- They told workers they could work either the day shift or the night shift from January 2021 to September 2021. It was possible for employees to work both jobs, though. If they worked the day shift, they had to be there from either 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 10 hours. It was planned for people working the night shift to work 13 hours, either from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. or from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.
- Around October 2021, the defendants added a second day and night shift. From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the extra day shift worked. From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., the extra night shift worked.
- Around August 2022, the defendants changed when the day and night shifts would start and how long they would last. People who work the day shift have to be there from either 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 11 hours. People who work the night shift have to be there for 13 hours, from either 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. or 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.
- Patel worked either the day shift or the night shift four to five days a week during the time period that this case is about. Sometimes he worked both. Patel usually worked four to five 10- or 13-hour shifts a week, which means that he worked more than 40 hours in one or more weeks during that time. But sometime around November 2023, Patel cut his work hours down to about 25 hours a week.
- In the time frame of this case, Garbus worked four to six days a week, sometimes on the night shift and sometimes during the day shift.
- Garbus usually worked four to six 10- or 13-hour shifts a week, which means that he worked more than 40 hours in a week at least once during that time.
- When firefighters worked extra hours, the defendants did not pay them the right amount until January 2023. Instead, the defendants paid the firefighters their hourly rate for all the hours they worked.
- According to the FLSA, Defendants broke the law by not paying Plaintiffs at their extra premium rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
- But on or around January 9, 2023, the defendants started paying extra at a “variable rate.”
Because of the way the defendants paid overtime, Plaintiffs had to work 171 hours in a thirty-day month, 171 hours in a 31-day month, and 160 hours in February in order to be qualified for overtime. - Defendants’ “variable rate” overtime payment plan broke the FLSA because it didn’t pay Plaintiffs the right overtime bonus rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek while they were working for the company.
- The defendants had uniform rules and policies that applied to everyone, and they planned to keep Plaintiffs from getting overtime pay. Because the defendants didn’t pay Plaintiffs properly and on purpose, as required by the FLSA, Plaintiffs lost wages and other damages.
Patel says that he first told a fire company board member about the FLSA problem in January 2024, but that he never heard back from them. That same month, in June, he brought it up again and even tried to get the board to meet in executive session.
The severance pay Patel got when he was fired in August included money to make up for the extra hours he said he wasn’t paid for.