I’m not just any old FDNY medic: suit

The FDNY has a new diversity problem: age discrimination, claims a 64-year-old paramedic who lost a shot at the department’s elite rescue medic squad while younger colleagues were passed on for promotion.

Edwin Tweedy says he met all the requirements for the job, in which medics complete rigorous physical training and are called on to treat people trapped in tight spaces, at high angles and other scary situations.

“I’m in better shape than most of my colleagues. Better qualified than most,” Tweedy told The Post.

Tweedy applied to be a rescue medic after his supervisors in The Bronx encouraged him to do so in December 2016, passing a written exam and a physical agility test, but his bid was scuttled when FDNY Dr. Dario Gonzalez “arbitrarily” canceled his interview the day before and disqualified him.

A paramedic for four years before he sought out the promotion, Tweedy “was denied the post because of his age,” he charges in a Manhattan federal-court lawsuit he filed against the city and the FDNY.

“It has to be age, because everything else, I passed,” Tweedy said. “I don’t get it.”

Tweedy wasn’t always a paramedic. A graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, he spent years in the shipping and energy industries, working in various ports.

But the Sept. 11 terror attacks changed all that.

“I was doing corporate-world stuff, and 9/11 came around and I was like everyone else, sitting around doing nothing,” he said. “As soon as I could do it, I wanted to give service and give back.”

Tweedy complained that his rejection for rescue medic training was discriminatory, to no avail, and resigned from his job in disgust.

“I lost my appetite for the Fire Department,” he said, calling it the “most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”

The FDNY, long under fire for its lack of diversity, has “created a culture where age factored into or controlled hiring decisions, rather than establishing and utilizing hiring practices designed to identify and hire those candidates having the best credentials and professional qualifications,” according to the lawsuit.

I’m in better shapeh than most of my colleagues. Better qualified d than most. — Edwin Tweedy (with daughter Alanna), 64, who says he was unjustly passed over for promotion