MONROE — A trial to determine if two paid District 1 firefighters were wrongfully terminated earlier this year is slated to begin on Sept. 13.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of the firefighters asserts that the township fire district did not follow procedures required under the state Exempt Firemen’s Act, according to Daniel Zirrith, the Livingston-based attorney representing the firefighters’ union.

“It gives certain rights to the employees, similar to tenure,” Zirrith said on Monday. “They can only be removed from employment after certain procedural safeguards are followed.”

Firefighters Michael Mangeri and David Shapter, who were the only paid firefighters in District 1, were laid off on March 5 after the district’s board of commissioners voted 4-1 to terminate them in February. Both worked the 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. shift.

The original complaint also stated that the district failed to provide exempt fireman’s certificates to Mangeri and Chapter. However, the certificates have since been issued, Zirrith said.

“If you possess an exempt fireman’s certificate, you have to show the financial situation is more severe than you would in other cases to lay somebody off,” Zirrith said.

The suit also claims that the fire district failed to provide proper notice to the two men that their employment and possible termination would be discussed at a meeting, Zirrith said. The firefighters’ union also filed unfair labor practice charges with the state Public Employment Relations Commission earlier this year, but scheduling conflicts between the two sides have led to numerous adjournments, said Joseph D. Youssouf, the fire district’s attorney.

“We were supposed to go in this week,” Youssouf said.

The hearings take two days, according to James Grande, president of the firefighters’ union.

“Nothing will happen until October,” Grande said. “We choose to postpone until we can get both days in relatively close.”

Mangeri and Shapter have not received accumulated sick time and stipend pay due to them since they were laid off, Grande said.

“The district has financial obligations they have to make to the firefighters. … It’s not good,” Grande added. “There’s a lot of tension between the district and the firefighters.”

State Superior Court Judge Francis Travis denied a temporary injunction sought by the union in late March. Travis ruled that the layoffs of the two paid firefighters would not result in any “imminent danger” to township residents.

Scott Kivet was elected a District 1 fire commissioner in February, shortly after Monroe Township Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 Chief Lonnie Pipero suspended him from his volunteer firefighting duties because he circulated a petition demanding that the two paid positions be kept.

“He’s a lone soldier up there,” Grande said of Kivet.