By Gary Klien
The Marin Independent Journal
MARINWOOD, Calif. — Fifteen former or current Marinwood firefighters are suing the Marinwood Community Services District, claiming it shorted them on overtime pay.
The lawsuit alleges the district violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by miscalculating the regular pay rate upon which overtime is based.
The firefighters said the district should have included not just hourly pay in its calculation of the regular pay rate, but also other compensation such as special assignment pay, holiday pay, college incentive pay and reimbursement for benefit costs.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 29 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, does not specify a dollar amount for the alleged underpayments. The suit asks for a court-ordered audit by the Marinwood district to determine proper compensation.
The firefighters are also seeking three years’ back pay plus interest and attorneys’ fees.
The plaintiffs are Ross Anderson, John Bagala, Ryan Brackett, Esteban Cespedes, Cesar Correa, Brad Davenport, Sean Day, Stephen Heine, Keith Larson, John Papanikolaou, Brandon Selvitella, Brian Smith, Jeff Smith, Joel White and Alexander Wilhelm.
Eric Dreikosen, manager of the Marinwood Community Services District, declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday, saying the district had yet to be served with the complaint and discuss it with counsel.
“The District has been in ongoing communications with its firefighters about compensation for quite some time as their labor contract is negotiated,” Dreikosen said in an email. “The District will approach resolution of this matter in a way that is fair and just to our employees and to our community.”
The lawsuit was filed by Gregg Adam, a San Francisco-based lawyer who filed a similar action last year against the Southern Marin Fire Protection District. That lawsuit resulted in a $155,000 settlement covering nearly four dozen firefighters. The payments to individual firefighters ranged from $131.13 to $8,124.16.
Copyright 2017 The Marin Independent Journal