CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston officials say they cannot move ahead with their next budget until a dispute involving a new firefighter wage formula -- one that eliminates an old policy that has forced the city to unnecessarily pay more than $4.5 million in wages and benefits -- is resolved in federal court.
Earlier this week, the city filed a pre-emptive civil action that called for a federal judge to decide whether a new hourly and overtime wage formula for firefighters is legally viable under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
City Manager David Molgaard said Friday the city filed the action in anticipation of a firefighters' union lawsuit that would try to block a November bill that introduced the new formula.
"We're in the middle of building our [2012-13] budget, and we can't do that with any reasonable certainty if they're going to pursue us in court," Molgaard said. "If we're right -- and we believe that we are -- then they need to get this behind them so that we can move forward."
City officials say the old formula, which has been in effect since 1993, unintentionally inflated the calculation of the regular hourly rates and skewed the overtime compensation rate the city was paying to its firefighters, according to the federal court complaint.
The finding is based on a 1995 federal court decision that amended the previously accepted Fair Labor Standard Act formula by excluding overtime premium payments from the computation of the regular rate of pay.
Officials calculated that in the past 10 years, the old formula has unnecessarily cost the city about $1.4 million, the complaint states. However, according to Molgaard, the calculation does not account for other factors - such as pension benefits inadvertently granted in the old formula -- that spike the decade-long survey total to about $4.5 million.
Add in the full 18 years the formula has been in effect, and the total payout might far exceed $4.5 million, Molgaard said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston officials say they cannot move ahead with their next budget until a dispute involving a new firefighter wage formula -- one that eliminates an old policy that has forced the city to unnecessarily pay more than $4.5 million in wages and benefits -- is resolved in federal court.
Earlier this week, the city filed a pre-emptive civil action that called for a federal judge to decide whether a new hourly and overtime wage formula for firefighters is legally viable under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
City Manager David Molgaard said Friday the city filed the action in anticipation of a firefighters' union lawsuit that would try to block a November bill that introduced the new formula.
"We're in the middle of building our [2012-13] budget, and we can't do that with any reasonable certainty if they're going to pursue us in court," Molgaard said. "If we're right -- and we believe that we are -- then they need to get this behind them so that we can move forward."
City officials say the old formula, which has been in effect since 1993, unintentionally inflated the calculation of the regular hourly rates and skewed the overtime compensation rate the city was paying to its firefighters, according to the federal court complaint.
The finding is based on a 1995 federal court decision that amended the previously accepted Fair Labor Standard Act formula by excluding overtime premium payments from the computation of the regular rate of pay.
Officials calculated that in the past 10 years, the old formula has unnecessarily cost the city about $1.4 million, the complaint states. However, according to Molgaard, the calculation does not account for other factors - such as pension benefits inadvertently granted in the old formula -- that spike the decade-long survey total to about $4.5 million.
Add in the full 18 years the formula has been in effect, and the total payout might far exceed $4.5 million, Molgaard said.
Myron Boggess, president of the local chapter of the International Association of Firefighters, said he would not comment until his lawyers were finished reviewing the civil action.
Boggess said in a November petition the new wage formula unilaterally decreases the regular hourly rate for all firefighters by $1.84 per hour.
"Each member of the Fire Suppression Department, when they hired into the department, accepted and agreed to the method of overtime pay and other benefits . . . ," Boggess said in the petition, which is co-signed by union vice president William Gill. "The members acquired property interest as a result of this agreement."
The city must approve the budget in March, Molgaard said.
The formula shift is one of several sweeping changes that Charleston officials have made in response to a study that found numerous problems within the city's firefighting system, such as too many stations, slow response times, overworked paramedics, bad recordkeeping and excessive overtime.
In December, City Council members cut 15 positions, bringing the staff total to 171. The council also changed a policy that, according to the study, allowed firefighters to earn overtime if they had not worked more than the normal hours in a given pay period.
Molgaard said at the time that the changes were expected to save the city about $750,000 per year.
Reach Zac Taylor at zachary.tay...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5189.
