Women in NYC Emergency Medical Service Unit Shatter "Female Firewall"
The Kurland Group announced a groundbreaking settlement that will improve the chances of ranking female members of the New York City Fire Department's Emergency Medical Service to have equal opportunities for promotions. The settlement helps shatter the "female firewall" by both recovering lost wages for the plaintiffs and creating a more level playing field when it comes to promotions within the Department.
The settlement provides that the five plaintiffs – all ranking female members of the FDNY's EMS division – collectively receive $1.06 million in back wages, more than $261,000 in compensatory damages, and attorney fees. Also, pension payments as a result of the settlement are expected to amount to an estimated $7 to $8 million.
Filed in December 2006 in Supreme Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit charged that the City's promotional practices within the FDNY violated New York State's Equal Protection Clause and New York City's Human Rights Statute and Administrative Code.
In addition to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the suit named six additional defendants: City of New York; the Fire Department; former FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta; EMS Chief John Peruggia; Assistant FDNY Commissioner for Equal Opportunity Paulette Lundy; and, the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
"This settlement helps remedy years of discriminatory policies, practices, and procedures that prevented accomplished women from scaling a 'female firewall' in the New York City Fire Department," said lead counsel Yetta Kurland. "For too many years, women were prevented from achieving the highest ranks in the department. This victory sends a clear signal that female applicants should and can receive the recognition and pay they deserve and join their male counterparts in high ranking positions within the FDNY."
"As a result of this lawsuit, the City of New York will institute improvements in the promotional process that we believe will go a long way in addressing a pervasive pattern of sex- and race-based discrimination that has existed within the FDNY," Kurland added.
Erica T. Kagan, a senior associate with The Kurland Group, added: "Ending discriminatory promotional practices does not just help the women in this lawsuit. It helps other women reach their fullest potential, and by doing so it helps the City of New York, including the FDNY, reach its fullest potential."
The plaintiffs - Amy Monroe (Manhattan); Kathleen Gonczi (previously of Queens, and now in Pennsylvania); Adrienne Knight (New Jersey); Mary Dandridge (Brooklyn); and, Irene Kruiten (Staten Island) - sought promotions, were denied the opportunity, and feared discrimination and retaliation. Each faced similar challenges at the time of filing:
- · Monroe – a Captain with 18 years in the FDNY. She applied for a promotion to deputy Chief, and had received a favorable review but was denied a promotion. She applied for promotions six times and was denied each time despite having extensive training and qualifications, including but not limited to serving on the FEMA NY Task Force on Urban Search and Rescue. She also was denied a chance to step down from Lieutenant to accept a lower salary in a different title of probation as a firefighter and was denied the appeal to DCAS. (She has since retired.)
- · Dandridge – a Lieutenant with 25 years in the FDNY. She applied for a promotion to FDNY/EMS Captain in May 2005 and was denied. She requested an evaluation and/or letter of recommendation from FDNY headquarters from 1997 to 2001 but did not receive one. She charged that she was deliberately retaliated against.
- · Gonczi – a Captain with 23 years in the FDNY. As a result of not being promoted during her tenure, she did not qualify for the positions to which she wanted to apply. She reported that she was alienated by a supervisor and had complaints filed against her for minor infractions that were not normally scrutinized. (She has since retired.)
- · Knight – a Captain with 19 years in the FDNY. She applied for a promotion in the Training and Operations bureaus and was denied. She also applied for a paramedic training program after passing tests but was denied the opportunity to enter the class despite her qualifications and was passed over by a white Captain. She was never given an explanation.
- · Kruiten – a Lieutenant in the EMS for 25 years. She received very good or outstanding evaluations over the previous five years, but was never invited to apply for any promotions. She claimed to face a "hostile" work environment, was scrutinized for minor infractions, and feared discrimination and retaliation if she applied for a promotion.
As part of the settlement approved by Supreme Court Justice Hon. Kathryn Freed, plaintiffs Dandridge, Kruiten and Knight agreed to resign from city service effective immediately. At that time, each is to receive all accrued annual leave pay, including sick and vacation time.
While all promotions up to Lieutenant are based on scoring on a DCAS-administered test, higher promotions remain subjective. Plaintiffs charged that they were consistently rebuffed in their pursuits for promotion, and that many women were not made aware of these promotional opportunities and therefore never given the chance to compete for them.
Under the settlement, the City has agreed to take the following corrective measures:
- · At mandatory FDNY equal employment opportunity training classes, an announcement will be made – and be included in writing in the materials– which includes the following language:
- "The FDNY, similar to all City agencies, provides information concerning Equal Employment Opportunity compliance to the New York City Equal Employment Practice Commission (EEPC) and such information is subject to the Freedom of Information Law. A FOIL request can be filed with the EEPC…"
- · Defendants shall ensure that all terminals for accessing the FDNY and EMS intranet are available to all EMS officers at all EMS commands.
- · Postings for all EMS officer discretionary assignment openings will appear on the FDNY EMS intranet, will be available for not less than two weeks prior to the closing date of the application process, and these postings can only be removed by FDNY human resources or MIS.
- · Defendants shall further take all reasonable steps to ensure that job postings are disbursed equally to men and women.
The Fire Department and its EMS units have traditionally had extremely low levels of female members. The legal action noted that there were 2,500 EMS staff personnel in the FDNY, 417 who held the ranks of Captains or Lieutenants. But only 16 percent – 70 out of the 417 – were female. Out of 11,600 uniformed members of the Fire Department at that time, only 30 were women, and the highest rank for a female was a single Division Chief.
The suit charged that African American women encountered even deeper challenges receiving promotions. Of the 11,600 members of the department, less than 0.3 percent were African American; only 9 of the 417 Lieutenants and Captains were African American women.