NY Post
By Peter Senzamici | December 17, 2024
The city will pay nearly $30 million to settle a massive race discrimination lawsuit filed by FDNY fire protection inspectors, according to the union repping the workers.
First filed in 2020 by five FDNY inspectors, the $29.9 million settlement will now pay out to nearly 600 members of the class action suit — current or past FDNY employees who say the city racially discriminated against them in their pay.
“Our members have been fighting the inequality and mistreatment they receive in the FDNY for decades,” said Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, the union representing the inspectors. “This settlement for Fire Inspectors is a step in the right direction of correcting that inequity.”
The suit’s racial discrimination claim states that FDNY fire protection inspectors are predominantly not white and as a result, they are paid up to 20% — or $9,000 per year — less than building department inspectors despite the jobs being substantially similar.
Department of Building inspectors are roughly 50% white, while FDNY inspectors are roughly 70% non-white, the suit claims.