5 female EMS workers file suit against FDNY over promotions
By MARCUS FRANKLIN
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Five female Emergency Medical Service employees filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing the fire department and city leaders of gender discrimination in promotions.
They and other women in the Fire Department of New York face a “glass ceiling” once they reach the rank of lieutenant, according to their lawsuit in Manhattan state Supreme Court.
Fire leaders have repeatedly and unfairly refused to promote qualified women even as unqualified men are promoted, says the lawsuit, which claims the women suffered loss of wages and advancement, psychological trauma, emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment and seeks unspecified damages.
The five women are long-time FDNY employees with time on the job ranging from 15 to 21 years, and at least one of them worked at ground zero after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“As a female you’re basically invisible,” one of the women, Lt. Mary Dandridge, 49, a 21-year employee, said at a news conference at a Manhattan law office, where the lawsuit was announced. “I love EMS, but I felt there should be a change.”
Fire department spokesman Farrell Sklerov released a short statement defending the promotion process, the number of women in the department and efforts to attract more of them.
“The fire department is proud of the contributions made by women in our EMS work force, and we believe the promotional system is fair,” the statement said. “This is evidenced by the fact that women make up 25 percent of the work force, and they are represented in approximately the same percentages in every higher rank (lieutenant, captain and deputy chief).”
Dandridge, who in the lawsuit said she was “treated poorly” by co-workers for speaking out against discrimination, was joined at the news conference by two attorneys and the president of the union local that represents EMS workers. The other four plaintiffs did not attend.
The lawsuit highlights disparities in a mostly white and male department long dogged by accusations of gender and racial discrimination. Last year, civil rights officials in the U.S. attorney’s office expanded their open investigation of allegations of racial discrimination in the fire department’s hiring practices to include accusations of gender discrimination.
Only 70, or roughly 16 percent, of the 417 lieutenants and captains in EMS are women, according to the lawsuit. There are a total 2,500 employees in EMS.
The highest rank held by a woman is division chief, and only one woman holds that position, the lawsuit says.
Of the fire department’s 11,600 uniformed firefighters, 30, or less than 1 percent, are women, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit blames “subjective” criteria in the promotions process for the discrimination, which the union local president said is getting worse.
Up to the rank of lieutenant, promotions are based on a written test given by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, also a defendant in the suit.
In EMS, ranks above lieutenant are captain, deputy chief, division chief, deputy assistant chief and chief of EMS, and only employees with “very good” or “outstanding” evaluations are invited to interview for higher positions, the lawsuit says.
The women who filed the lawsuit say they have received outstanding evaluations but haven’t been invited to be interviewed for promotions. A “glass ceiling” has blocked them, the lawsuit says.
Lt. Irene Kruiten, a 19-year veteran, has received “very good” or “outstanding” evaluations the past five years. Yet, department leaders have never invited her to apply for promotions, according to the lawsuit. When she applied for a deputy chief position anyway, she, along with other women, was denied an interview, the suit says.
The other women who filed the lawsuit are captains Amy Monroe, Kathleen Gonczi and Andrienne Knight.
“It’s an unfair process, and it’s only getting worse,” said Tom Eppinger, president of Local 3621 of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union, who recommended implementing test-based promotions throughout the ranks to “make the process legitimate.”
Yetta Kurland, one of the lawyers for the employees, said fire officials’ public comments in recent months about their efforts to attract women to the department are a “smoke screen to disguise long-term and abysmal practices.”
“It’s no wonder the FDNY struggles to attract women to join when it cannot even cultivate and reward their talent and their accomplishments,” Kurland said.