Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
Was it the lie she told that got her fired, or was the lie just a convenient excuse to get rid of a female firefighter who forced her way on the job to begin with? That is the issue at the center of a lawsuit filed last week in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Victoria Bozic was fired by the city of Washington Fire Department on March 5, 2009, shortly after she misrepresented where she lived during an alleged interrogation about her residency. Just six months earlier Bozic had been hired through a settlement of her claims that she had not been hired in 2008 because she was pregnant. The city also gave her a $20,000 settlement.
Bozic was the department’s first female firefighter, and the fact it took a complaint to the EEOC about being passed over for employment – seems to give some credibility to her allegations that she has been singled out for special scrutiny. On the other hand, should a fire department be saddled with an employee with a propensity to ignore things like residency requirements, and forced to grant her a free pass when she is caught fibbing?
