(Story courtesy of WVLT News)
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) Several Knoxville firefighters are suing the city, claiming they’re being underpaid under the city’s employee payment plan.
Attorney Richard Collins filed the lawsuit on Jan. 13 on behalf of Kevin Faddis, Shawn Langley, Stephen Mitchell, Gregory Phillips, Robert Pollard and Christopher Smith. It’s a lawsuit that focuses on the city’s payment step plan, a 2022 effort passed by the city council along with a 6% raise to bring employee salaries up to market value.
In the suit, Collins claimed that all of Knoxville firefighters with more than five years of experience were placed on the wrong “step” in the city’s plan.
“When the City implemented the Pay Step Plan in July 2022, it placed firefighters who had served in their current rank for five or more years at an arbitrary lower step, effectively locking those firefighters into lower pay grades within the step plan,” the lawsuit said.
Collins said that the payment plan was understood to contain 25 steps, with each “corresponding to years of service‚” meaning someone who has fought fires with the city for five years would receive the salary of a “step five” firefighter. That isn’t confirmed, however.
The filing said the firefighters tried to file a grievance with the city. In that complaint, they asked to be reassigned to the “correct” step and asked for the formula that decides where they land. That request was denied, Collins said, because city rules say payment is not “grievable.”
WVLT News has asked the city for documentation outlining the entire pay plan, including how employees were placed into their steps.
If true, Collins said, and the city did place more experienced firefighters at too-low of tiers, it could be considered age discrimination by the city. This, because the more experienced firefighters are generally older.
According to the suit, all the plaintiffs are 49 years old or older and each has at least 25 or more years with the department. On top of the firefighters filing the lawsuit, Collins provided a sample of 12 more he claimed were placed on the wrong “step,” each aged between 48 and 67.
“The City’s misclassification disproportionately (if not entirely) affects older firefighters,” Collins said and “creates a disparate impact on older workers given the years of service and experience within the department required to reach such ranks.”
It’s especially interesting that Faddis is named in the lawsuit. Throughout the course of 2022, he was heavily involved in the implementation of the payment plan. WVLT News reached out to Collins about this, and he provided a statement over email:
“My clients do not challenge the compensation plan as enacted by the Knoxville City Council,” he said. “Instead, my clients seek to redress the City’s failure to execute the plan according to its terms, the City’s own representations, and the expectations of those involved in the development and ultimate approval of the plan.”
That statement came in response to one by the city. Collins said that comment “missed the mark.”
Our compensation overhaul was done after extensive input and consultation with all of our employee reps, that included the Knoxville Fire Department. The 6% salary increase along with the step plan, was designed to bring our employees up to market standards and to address compression.
Please keep in mind, we worked with a national consultant on our compensation plan. Their skill and expertise guided our salary adjustments, and the final plan was ultimately approved both by our employee reps and City Council. – City of Knoxville
