Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The FDNY race discrimination case that has held up hiring for nearly five years continues to grind toward resolution with two rulings last week. On Tuesday U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis issued an order to lower the application fee from $54 to $30, “in order to encourage a more diverse pool of applicants”.
On Wednesday, Judge Garaufis ruled that FDNY must require applicants to state their race, ethnicity and gender on their applications in order to determine if the testing process discriminates. He wrote “[I]t is incumbent on the court to verify that the city’s current hiring practices comply with the requirements of federal and state antidiscrimination law and the collection of exam applicant demographic data will be critical to fulfilling that obligation.” The city’s plan would have allowed applicants to withhold demographic information.
