The FLSA quote, "... an occasional or sporadic ... part-time employment for the public agency which is in a different capacity from any capacity in which the employee is regularly employed with the public agency, since it specifies "THE agency, implies different work performed for the same agency, wouldn't it? For instance, "interpretive guide" at a park with park-time cleaning duties? If it were intended to cover working for completely different agencies, wouldn't the law have been worded that way (e.g., "part-time employment in a different agency")?

More to the point, why don't we pay our cops and firefighters and EMS personnel enough so they don't have to have part-time jobs to make ends meet?!?

Mr 618

Good question.

It takes good planning and everyone in agreement. Case in point,

This issue has come up with Cal Fire, here in California, where their duty week is 3 continuous days (72 hours) with forced overtime for daily staffing deficiencies or extended fire activity on a Statewide basis (ICS classified personnel are sent from one location to another to fill out the assignments and then "Back filled" at their home location).

Their pay is figured at 53 hours straight time and 19 hours FLSA for their normal duty week.

Yet as the current Union President is essentially saying saying in the media ( Sacramento Bee, The State Worker Column 7-1-16, Taryn Luna) at the end of the month, the pay differential between them and the 10 largest FD's in the State (LA City and Co, San Francisco and so on on) is between 30% and 50 % less, yet they work between 48 and 56 hours per week.

And any talk of reducing the work week causes "Heart burn" in the Governor's office because it means hiring more people, which increases the budget.

If you've followed the "scandal's" that have occurred over the past two years with the agency, their is now a $4.4 million dollar expenditure which has been added for "Investigations" of wrong doing for future employee mis conduct (Sacramento Bee, The State Worker, 6-10-16 Jon Ortiz).

Yet, if they didn't need to spend the money on the investigation unit, that money could go for better pay and increased staffing.

So, a firefighter in Cal Fire can, Work OT as a second job or be forced hired due to staffing deficiencies or major fire activity.

Any solutions for them?

Hire enough firefighters, cops, and EMS personnel (along with DOT and other critical needs), and dump some of the Deputy Junior Assistant Commissioners in Charge of Handing Out Paper Clips and Making the Governor Look Good.

Agree 100%...

I suppose the question is - what is a public agency? If I work for the City of ABC Fire Department, who is my employer, the City of ABC or the ABC Fire Department? Whose name is on the checks??? Who signs the checks??? The answer may be different in departments. If the firefighters are considered to be employees of the City of ABC... and the City of ABC also employs the bus drivers to drive... take your pick... school buses, senior citizen vans, etc. - it is the same public agency.

Here is the FLSA definition of public agency: 29 USC 203
(x) “Public agency” means the
Government of the United States; the government of a State or political
subdivision thereof; any agency of the United States (including the
United States Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission), a State,
or a political subdivision of a State; or any interstate governmental
agency.

I would say Yes.

But, remember its two separate Job Classification with two different BFOQ's and rate's of pay.

In California one would be classified as a "Safety" position and the other "Non-safety".

I have had friends that were firefighters and the part time Police Officers in their community on their days off.

BFOQ? Big Fire Officer Questionnaire? Big Foot Or Queeg? Beg For Only Quarters? Big F**kin' Old Q (siren)? Enquiring minds want to know!

Bona Fide Occupational Qualification in case your Google button is broken there Andrew.....

As a Great American Philosopher once said, "there you go again..." getting all technical. I've found that Googling certain acronyms makes WebSense unhappy and leads to blocking sites.