Santa Rosa firefighters are suing the city in federal court, claiming they’ve been systematically cheated out of overtime for years.
The city’s 118 unionized firefighters say the city is improperly calculating their overtime pay, and they now want to recoup their losses for the past three years, plus interest, costs and attorney’s fees. The suit could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars based on rough calculations.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on March 27. The two sides began mediation last week and have another session scheduled for May 9.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the law under which the firefighters are suing, allows employees to recover lost wages going back three years.