Gadsden firefighters' lawsuit claims overtime pay owed, alleges retaliation from city

Gadsden firefighters say the City of Gadsden and its personnel director retaliated against them over a lawsuit filed by current and former employees claiming the city owes them money for overtime work, according to an amended complaint filed in federal court this week.

The original lawsuit, filed in May, sought recovery of damages that resulted from the city's alleged violations of the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, claiming the city failed to pay its firefighters the correct overtime rate.

The amended complaint claims that since that time, the city's personnel office informed one of the plaintiffs that because of the lawsuit, the city would not be giving firefighters a raise, and that it planned to eliminate the overtime rate for working overtime on Sundays and reduce the rate at which the firefighters accrue sick leave along with other benefits outlined in the current fire department handbook.

The amended claim says Personnel Director Kerry Payne abandoned further meetings that were already set with the firefighters union to discuss pay raises and restructuring. It also contends that about a month after the complaint was filed, three plaintiffs, Tony Calvert, Josh Nabors, and Jonathan Day, were called to meetings with the fire chief to receive disciplinary letters based on their social media activity related to matters involving "the city's budget and whether the city's governance complied with the law."

According to the complaint, Chief Wil Reed told the plaintiffs he was made aware of alleged infractions of the social media policy by Payne, and that disciplinary action was to be carried out.

“The city’s retaliatory actions violate, not only the anti-retaliation provisions of the FLSA, but also the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution,” said Greg McGillivary, the managing partner of McGillivary Steele Elkin LLP, the law firm representing the plaintiffs.

“The city has unlawfully punished all the plaintiffs by canceling pay raise discussions and threatening to eliminate benefits for all firefighters in retaliation for the plaintiffs’ filing an overtime lawsuit," he said. "Furthermore, the city and its personnel director have targeted specific plaintiffs with disciplinary actions for their exercise of their rights under the U.S. Constitution, including their right to file the overtime lawsuit, their right to associate with a union and their right to speak out as private citizens on issues of good governance."

City Attorney Lee Roberts said the original lawsuit came at a time when the personnel director and a council member had just begun to meet with fire department representatives regarding pay rates and structure.

"Typically, matters like this are brought to my attention so that we can amicably resolve any problems without having to spend taxpayer dollars on legal costs and attorney's fees," Roberts said at the time of the initial filing. "I was unaware of the issues addressed in the complaint, but I hope that we can come to terms in short order."

"We're committed to doing what's right," Roberts said.

The lawsuit contends that firefighters above the rank of basic firefighter had scheduled overtime pay calculated at time-and-a-half for the basic firefighter pay rate, rather than their rate of pay at the rank they held.

As an example, the lawsuit states that a driver who makes $14 a hour should get $21 an hour for unscheduled overtime; instead the employees received $17.62 per hour when working unscheduled overtime, according to the lawsuit.

“It is not right that the city violates the federal pay law, and then when we file suit they retaliate against us and our members for speaking out and exercising our rights,” Matt Blom, president of the firefighters' union said.

The plaintiffs say they plan to seek additional damages in the lawsuit, for the alleged retaliatory action.

Payne did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Gadsden firefighter lawsuit claims pay violations, and now retaliation