Years-Long Dispute with Kansas City First Responders End with Settlements

On March 29, 2022, US District Court for the Western District of Missouri Judge Brian Gaddy approved a $2 million settlement in a collective class action entitled Adams et al v. City of Kansas City, Missouri (“Adams”). The class was comprised of 347 Kansas City firefighters who sued the City for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) arising from underpayment of firefighter overtime over several years. On September 29, 2021, Judge Gaddy held that the City failed to lawfully include “specialty and certification pay” in the firefighter class members’ regular rate of pay for purposes of calculating overtime. Specialty and certification pay are well defined and bargained-for wage augments firefighters earn for obtaining advanced training, education, and instruction.

On May 17, 2022, Jackson County Judge Kenneth Garrett approved a $2 million settlement in a companion FLSA action entitled Dines et al v. City of Kansas City, Missouri (“Dines”). The allegations in the Dines case involved the same or similar FLSA violations on the part of the City as in Adams and included relief for 623 collective class firefighters. Both Adams and Dines settlements were the result of many months of negotiations with the City following Judge Gaddy’s September 2021 ruling and neither would have been possible without the determined and tireless efforts of the Western District’s Mediation and Assessment Program Director, Laurel Stevens.