Blaz turns back on 9/11 medics
An EMT with a 9/11-related illness who was forced to retire because her sick leave ran out is among scores of city employees who say they are facing the same unthinkable ultimatum backed by their own mayor.
Jennifer Dougherty said she is baffled by Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to block legislation extending sick time for city workers who sifted through toxic debris and put their lives on the line.
“I had stuck with (EMS) for 25 years and my goal was to stay until 30 years,” Dougherty, 49, told the Daily News. “I feel like I was coerced into retiring just so I could keep my health benefits.”
Dougherty had been fighting ovarian cancer linked to her exposure to the toxic dust swirling around Ground Zero and the mangled remains of the Twin Towers when she was told on June 4 that she was on the verge of using up all her allotted sick time.
“They told me that I was going to be off the books on July 1, so I had to run across the street and retire,” she said. “I knew that meant I would no longer be getting a pay check or health benefits and I needed to keep them.”
In the weeks following 9/11, Dougherty was part of a medical team at the Fresh Kills Landfill, where workers painstakingly combed through debris from the Twin Towers looking for remains.
Unlike cops, firefighters and city Sanitation workers, EMTs and other city employees aren’t given unlimited sick time when they suffer a line-of-duty injury or illness, like the ones that can be linked to 9/11.
“I think it’s a poor situation,” Dougherty said. “If firefighters and police officers are entitled to unlimited sick leave, why are we so different?”
The state legislature is trying to pass a bill that would put EMS, members of the Transport Workers Union and other city employees left sick following 9/11 on equal footing with cops, firefighters and sanitation workers. But a legislative memo from Mayor de Blasio put the kibosh on the bill, critics charge.
“I am repulsed by this,” said longtime 9/11 victim advocate John Feal. “Once again the mayor is putting politics before human life.”
The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Marty Golden (RBrooklyn) unanimously passed the senate, but a similar bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer-Amato (D-Queens) never made it to the floor after de Blasio’s opposition memo was distributed to Albany legislators, according to the ChiefLeader, which first reported the story.
The memo, while crediting the city employees who helped in the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero, said the bill “has an unknown cost to the city” and “provides for a vague series of administrative determinations” which would likely create confusion.
“This bill does a poor job of translating a particularly complex process to the context of active service,” the memo notes.
Advocates estimate that roughly 15,000 city employees, including police and firefighters, went down to Ground Zero in the days following the terror attacks — but only a handful of first responders were covered with unlimited sick leave.
“Many of these men and women got sick from their time there and were forced to retire,” Feal said. “These are people who were proud to work for their unions and serve the city. They were hailed as heroes after 9/11, but were shunned away by de Blasio when he thought they were going to be a drain on the city.”
“De Blasio is like many other politicians who use 9/11 and first responders for their political gain and then takes every chance they can to screw us,” Feal said.
City officials said the bill doesn’t take into account that many of the city’s agencies do not have medical staff, raising questions on who determines if an employee’s illness can be linked to 9/11.
Instead of having a blanket law covering a handful of agencies, each union should hammer out their own sick leave procedure when it comes to 9/11 illnesses at the bargaining table, officials said.
“We thank 9/11 responders for the heroic work they carried out to protect their fellow New Yorkers and create a more resilient city,” City Hall spokesman Raul Contrares said in a statement. “Like we’ve done before in the bargaining process, we’ll engage our workforce on leave benefits, including the current benefits available to 9/11 responders. However, the bill as it currently stands is flawed.”
Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, balked at the city’s reasoning. City employees never stopped to strike a bargain with the city when the towers fell, he noted.
“The mayors’ Albany representative has the audacity to say this should be part of a ‘contract negotiation’?” Chevat asked. “Really? On 9/11 and the days after, these EMT’s didn’t stop and say, ‘Wait, hold on, maybe we should negotiate exposure to deadly toxins into our contract before going.’ They responded.”