Marin FLSA Update: IMPORTANT!

Dear Local 1775 Members,

One of our primary goals as a labor union is to improve, maintain and protect our Firefighter's wages, benefits and working conditions.  Each year, our Officers, Shop Stewards and Association leadership attend labor leadership training sponsored by the IAFF.

Each year, L-1775 leaders attended the IAFF Affiliate Leadership Training (ALTS).  Local 1775 leaders, along with Marin County Shop Steward Mike Tribolet, attended a class on FLSA where thay learned that the County of Marin Payroll department was not complying with FLSA, a federal law, when calculating firefighter pay.  Mike, working with MCFDFA, Local 1775's leaders, and attorney Gregg Adam, were able to document specific FLSA violations for each Marin County Firefighter and reach an agreement with the county to reimburse their members for 2 years of miscalculated FLSA (based on the statute of limitations).  In some cases the totals were significant.  The errors were corrected going forward, resulting in pay increases for our members that will carry for the rest of their career.

The MCFD findings were shared with Shop Stewards from each Marin fire agency at a monthly L1775 board meeting more than a year ago.  Soon after, Shop Stewards from other agencies reported similar miscalculations of FLSA.  

It is important to point out that the issues that lead to the miscalculations are complex, and Local 1775 does not believe the errors were intentional or malicious.  That said, the dollar amounts owed to our members total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 2 year period.

Marin County FD set an excellent example of how to collaborate with their employer to quickly resolve the FLSA issue.  Local 1775 and our attorneys, John Grey and Greg Adam have worked for the past 11 months to recover monies that are rightfully owed to our members, seeking to achieve a similarly cooperative outcome with other agencies.  Unfortunately the other agencies, cities and towns so far have not been willing to cooperate like the County.

L-1775 has been forced by the agencies (represented by law firm Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore) to pursue legal means to recover 2-3 year of back pay for our members. While we don't have all of the calculations for each member yet, early indications are that the money owed ranges from zero - to $10,000+ per member affected.

To date we have documentation that there are varying degrees of FLSA miscalculations at RVY, SOM, SNR, MRW. Pending are LRK and MLV. CMD reported that they did not have a significant problem.  KNT and NOV reported they have every indication that their employers are properly calcualting FLSA. 

A positive outcome is that the RVY and SOM administrations have admitted that they were improperly calculating FLSA.  Going forward they are correctly calculating FLSA. We will double check to confirm the calculations.  Meetings with each associations were held last week and will result in actions being taked to recover the back pay using legal means.

Finally, I want to acknowledge Mike Tribolet again for his commitment to learning about labor leadership and FLSA, and sharing that information with his brothers and sisters at Local 1775.

Also, I want to recognize from RVY Tim Grasser, Scott Porter and Rick Addicks for their diligent work creating a spreadsheet showing the payroll and FLSA calculations for the past 3 years at RVY. This is the template for other associations.

Of course John Grey, Gregg Adam and his staff are to be thanked for their legal advice.

Be assured that your L-1775 Officers - Vice President John Bagala, Secretary Todd Lando, Treasurer Jason Hatfield and Political Director Ken Martin are passionately working to see that our members receive their FLSA money that is due them. 

Fraternally,