MISSY WILKINSON

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate

(TNS)

A dispute between the city and its firefighters over "out of class" assignments will go to trial next month after a marathon negotiation session in Civil District Court on Thursday failed to produce a settlement, union officials said.

"A full day — 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. yesterday — spent in negotiation at (Judge Nicole Sheppard's) request produced no agreement," union president Aaron Mischler said in a Friday statement. "We will be preparing for a trial Sept. 14."

The New Orleans Fire Department did not respond to a request for comment.

New Orleans Fire Fighters Association Local 632 sued the city and fire agency on Aug. 6, alleging that NOFD Superintendent Roman Nelson assigned firefighters to higher-responsibility roles for which they weren't qualified, denied them the additional pay those roles carry and threatened discipline if they refused.

Such "out of class" assignments include having a firefighter cover a fire apparatus operator's or fire captain's shift — positions that require training and state certifications firefighters do not hold.

The city has maintained that assigning firefighters to higher-responsibility roles during staffing shortages is a longstanding practice and that the dispute ultimately comes down to compensation. Amid the city's ongoing budget crisis and resulting NOFD staffing shortages, firefighters working "out of class" have been required to take on those duties without the corresponding higher pay.

But union members allege Nelson violated Civil Service rules by requiring firefighters to accept the assignments and retaliated against the union after it posted a bulletin reminding members of their right to decline them. The union contends that retaliation violated members' First Amendment and labor rights.

The parties gathered Thursday, when the trial was originally scheduled to begin. Instead, Sheppard ordered them to make one last attempt to settle the dispute in her courtroom, Mischler said. The order came in response to an Aug. 26 filing by the city arguing that the union had not made "every reasonable effort" to resolve the dispute before suing.

Like an Aug. 17 meeting between the firefighters' union and the city, Thursday's negotiations ended without an agreement.

© 2026 The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. Visit www.nola.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.