Sixty-eight Brownsburg firefighters just closed out a long-running pay fight with the town, landing a $465,000 settlement over claims that officials shortchanged them on overtime for years. The money covers back pay, damages and legal fees tied to a federal lawsuit that traced its roots back to a single questioned paycheck in late 2023.
According to Fox59, the Town of Brownsburg has settled the lawsuit brought against it by the local firefighters union for $465,000. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in May 2025, accused the town of mishandling overtime pay for the 68 firefighters named as plaintiffs. A separate account from citizenportal.ai described the $465,000 figure as a proposed settlement that still required Fire Territory executive-board approval and court confirmation, differing from Fox59's characterization of the matter as already settled.
The dispute began in December 2023, when a firefighter questioned a paycheck and Local 4406 raised the concern with department leaders, per the dossier's timeline of the case. An internal review reportedly corrected that paycheck error the following month, but the fix didn't end the questions. Broader concerns about how the department calculated overtime and structured its compensation system lingered well beyond that single correction.
Allegations Center on Hours, Rates and Special Shifts
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the firefighters in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, laid out several specific grievances. As reported by iaff.org, the town refused to provide any overtime pay beyond 212 hours during the 28-day work period. Fox59's reporting adds that most Brownsburg firefighters worked between 216 and 240 hours in that same 28-day stretch without getting the overtime they say they earned.
The complaint also challenged how the town calculated pay rates. Per WISH-TV, firefighters alleged that Brownsburg did not calculate the correct hourly rate, and that all plaintiffs were paid at half their hourly rate whenever they worked a shift designated as “SPECIAL.” David Brock, president of Hendricks County Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 4406, told the station he personally went unpaid for 32 overtime hours in January 2023. WISH-TV's reporting on the case also noted that the alleged FLSA violations were first discovered in January 2024.
Union Escalated the Fight Through 2024 and 2025
Local 4406 didn't go straight to court. The union sought a legal review of Brownsburg Fire Territory's overtime pay policy in April 2024, according to the same Fox59 account, before formally notifying the town of possible Fair Labor Standards Act violations on August 9 of that year. The lawsuit itself wasn't filed until May 2025, after those internal efforts apparently failed to resolve the dispute.
Federal law gives fire departments some flexibility on overtime timing. The U.S. Department of Labor's Section 7(k) provision allows employees engaged in fire protection to be paid overtime on a work-period basis rather than a standard weekly schedule. Whether Brownsburg's specific pay practices crossed any legal line under that framework was not resolved in the available reporting.
Town Switches to Hourly Pay System
Brownsburg has already changed how it pays its firefighters going forward. The town switched firefighters to an hourly pay system effective April 6, and the shift was intended to give both sides a clearer way to track hours worked, calculate overtime and make sure employees receive money they're owed. The union said the hourly system more accurately tracks firefighters' hours and makes it easier to calculate overtime and pay money owed.
In a statement released Tuesday, Brock said the settlement resolves members' claims for money owed for hours worked, but does not change the reason the case was brought in the first place. He added that residents deserve a clear account of how the Town of Brownsburg handled the pay concerns that led to the lawsuit. The settlement reportedly broke down into $140,007.01 in back pay, $116,006.94 in liquidated damages and $208,986.04 in plaintiffs' attorneys' fees, according to citizenportal.ai's review of the council's authorization.
The town has not offered a detailed public response to the settlement beyond its earlier practice of declining comment on pending litigation.
