Lawsuit Claims New York City EMS Workers Denied Proper Overtime Wages

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Three EMS workers have filed a proposed collective action in which they claim New York City has failed to properly calculate overtime wages.

According to the suit, New York has routinely underpaid emergency medical services workers who are members of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Social Services Employees Union Local 2507 by failing to include all earned wages as part of their regular rate of pay for the purpose of calculating time-and-a-half overtime wages. The case argues that the defendant’s exclusion of differential pay and other remuneration from its overtime rate calculations has caused workers to be paid less than they are entitled to under federal law for every hour worked in excess of 40 each week.

According to the suit, EMS workers are paid a base hourly rate plus additional compensation such as longevity pay, night-shift differentials, assignment differentials and other bonus wages. The case argues that such compensation should, in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), be included as part of the workers’ “regular rate[s]” for the purpose of calculating their time-and-a-half overtime rates. The defendant, nevertheless, has failed to include EMS workers’ additional compensation beyond their base pay rate as part of their regular pay rate, and thus paid them “at an incorrect time and one-half overtime rate,” the lawsuit contests.

“Plaintiffs’ overtime rates are miscalculated, and Plaintiffs are not compensated at the full rate of one- and one-half times their regular rate of pay inclusive of the paid differentials and other covered payments,” the complaint alleges.

The case goes on to claim that one of the plaintiffs was paid an overtime rate that, on its face, was less than one-and-a-half times his base pay rate. Per the suit, the man’s night-shift differentials, specialty assignment differentials, non-pensionable longevity differentials, pensionable longevity differentials and recurring increment payments were wrongly excluded from his regular pay rate such that he was paid far less than he should have received under the FLSA. The case argues that the other two plaintiffs were similarly underpaid due to New York City’s alleged practice of failing to pay proper overtime wages and excluding the workers’ additional compensation from its overtime rate calculations.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who, as members of AFSCME District Council 37 EMS workers, Local 2507, worked for New York City at any time since September 8, 2018. The proposed collective excludes members of AFSCME District Council 37 Local 3621, Uniformed EMS Officers Union. 

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