PARKERSBURG – A Wood County judge has granted summary judgment to members of the Parkersburg Fire Department in a case involving two pay issues.
Wood Circuit Judge Robert A. Waters issued his order October 18. Wayne White, Michael Wood, Joshua Gandee and others members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 91 filed the complaint in 2018 against the City of Parkersburg.
Waters’ order spells out the timeline of the case, saying there were two separate and distinct components of wages at issue. Those were longevity pay and extra pay for firefighters with Emergency Medical Technician designation.
Walt Auvil
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The judge also says he ordered the parties to mediate the case more than once, but both sides refused to do so. Both parties filed their motions for summary judgment in March. He ruled for the plaintiffs.
According to the order, Parkersburg adopted a longevity pay plan on July 1, 2008, that gave part-time employees $624 per year for each year of service. Fire department employees who worked 40 hours per week would get 30 cents per hour for each year of service. Fire civil service employees working 48 hours per week would get 25 cents per hour for each year of service. The ordinance also said longevity would be included in the base pay for purposes of overtime.
But, longevity pay was suspended on July 1, 2011. And on November 8, 2011, City Council changed the plaintiffs’ work week from 48 hours to 54 hours.
The city says the plaintiffs should have been paid just a little over 22 cents per hour as 54-hour employees instead of 25 cents per hour as 48-hour employees. Still, the plaintiffs were paid the 25 cents per hour from 2011 to 2017 when the city says it discovered the error and reduced the hourly wages of the plaintiffs. That resulted, of course, in a reduction in hourly wages.
“The City of Parkersburg’s argument that all eligible city employees were to receive a set $624.00 per year is negated by the language of the statute and the failure to consider that due to overtime, the employees would be receiving different amounts for longevity,” the order states. “The city could have adopted a plan similar to the State of West Virginia where most employees receive a set amount of longevity pay based on years of service once per year. However, the city tied longevity pay to hourly wage in a confusing ordinance.”
Waters says the EMT pay issue is clear. In 2017, Parkersburg reduced EMT pay from 42 cents per hour for the 48-hour work week to 37 cents per hour for the 54-hour work week.
“The extra pay for EMT certification provides that 48-hour employees who qualify receive an extra $0.42 per hour and those on day shift receive $0.50 per hour,” the order states. “That ordinance was never amended. There is absolutely no language in statute to support a reduction to $0.37 per hour.
“The City of Parkersburg has just re-calculated the amount based upon what it believes is the intent of the statute.”
Waters says the city never notified a change in pay practices to the plaintiffs, and its actions violated the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act.
Waters says the city should pay the plaintiffs 25 cents per hour from 2017 to present for accrued longevity pay and 42 cents per hour for EMT certification from 2017 to present.
He also ordered all 54-hour work week employees be paid 25 cents per hour per years of service between July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2011, for longevity pay and 48 cents per hour for EMT certification.
Walt Auvil represented the firefighters in the case.
Wood Circuit Court case number 18-C-259