Chicago paramedics and EMTs entitled to overtime
In a ruling expected to have a dramatic effect on emergency medical service operations throughout the country, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Seventh Circuit Court ruling that EMTs and paramedics in Chicago must be paid overtime for all hours over 40 worked in any given week.
At issue in Chicago v. Alex, et al was whether EMS personnel were exempted under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Firefighters and law enforcement officers had been specifically exempted from traditional working hour provisions since 1974. The suit, however, challenged the concept of EMS personnel working in this “exempt environment” without the benefit of “cross-training” or actual participation in fire suppression or law enforcement activities.
Previously, firefighters had been allowed to work a total of 136 hours in an 18-day work cycle by federal exemption. Chicago firefighters and paramedics were working a 24-hour-on and 48-hour-off cycle with an extra day off after every fourth shift. As of January 4, paramedics in Chicago began to work a 24-hour-on and 72-hour-off shift (a four-shift platoon system), according to Kevin McGregor, sprokesperson for the Chicago Fire Department.
The lawsuit noted that paramedics in Chicago do not actually engage in fire suppression activities even though they have made numerous requests to the city and the union to become “cross-trained.” Cross-training programs in other localities have been upheld by various courts.
Source: EmergencyNet News Service, Emergency Response & Research Institute, Chicago, Ill., Dec. 12, 1994; phone interview with Kevin McGregor, Chicago (IL) Fire Department, Jan. 1995.
