A District Court judge approved a settlement agreement between the Osceola County (Florida) administration and the fire department’s battalion chiefs. The settlement acknowledges that the battalion chiefs are eligible for overtime pay and should be duly compensated. The county has also agreed to pay more than $300,000 to resolve some outstanding claims.
“We are pleased with this positive settlement and are relieved that this two-decades-long effort to get our battalion chiefs properly classified and compensated has come to an end,” said Adam Seithel, Osceola County Local 3284 president. “We appreciate everything the IAFF and our 12th District leaders have done to help us through this process.”
Local 3284 has long contended battalion chiefs’ primary job functions – fire suppression and emergency medical response — are not managerial in nature and not exempt from overtime pay, or time-and-a-half, as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Members filed a lawsuit in 2005 hoping to get the battalion chiefs correctly classified and properly compensated. But they lost the case.
Repeated attempts to fix the issue were made over the years, but progress was made only when Local 3284 negotiated with the county administration to include language in its new contract that classified battalion chiefs as hourly employees. This classification meant they were eligible for overtime pay when that contract was ratified in August 2023.
Still, outstanding pay claims remained, so the IAFF General Counsel reviewed the county’s pay practices.
“We determined that the county had misclassified the battalion chiefs and had not included the overtime compensation into their paychecks prior to the ratification of the contract,” said Peter Leff, General Counsel. “Accordingly, we filed a lawsuit with the District Court for the Middle District of Florida to rectify the issues.”
We determined that the county had misclassified the battalion chiefs and had not included the overtime compensation into their paychecks prior to the ratification of the contract. Accordingly, we filed a lawsuit with the District Court for the Middle District of Florida to rectify the issues.
IAFF general counsel peter leff
The county agreed to settlement negotiations and eventually agreed to pay the outstanding claims. Fourteen current and former battalion chiefs are entitled to the settlement.
Several other similar lawsuits are in progress throughout the state. Local 3284 was the first to win its case on this issue.
