Make us uniformed 1st responders
recognized as uniformed. So we think it’s time for some fairness and equality for EMS,” he said.
The city Emergency Medical Service merged with the FDNY in 1996, and since then its employees have continued to be treated by the city as civilian staffers — even though its members work in a similar capacity to firefighters and cops and are called on in major emergencies, including terrorism and other disasters.
The unions have long argued that their members, who include fire inspectors, should be viewed as a uniformed workforce, which would accord better pay and benefits in alignment with what cops and firefighters earn.
Currently, the base starting pay for an EMT is $33,320, according to the city’s website. After five years, it jumps to $47,685. Paramedics start at $45,000 and jump to $61,000.
In contrast, the starting pay for a firefighter is $45,000 — but after five years it tops $110,000.
Yet the EMS work load — handling nearly 5,000 911 calls every day — is one of the most demanding in the city.
The department is chronically understaffed and often has to force mandatory overtime on members to cover sick days and vacations, especially in the summer.
Members get 12 sick days a year — the amount given to civilian city workers — even though they spend their days treating people with illnesses like the flu, bronchitis and more, the unions point out.
Uniformed workers, however, get unlimited sick leave.
De Blasio — who chided city agencies to be speedy and transparent on FOIL requests when he was public advocate — has been criticized in recent years for trying to micromanage the process.
In 2015, he issued a mandate to city attorneys instructing them to forward all FOIL requests that “reflect directly on the mayor” to his lawyers.
The mayor said it was an effort to streamline FOIL responses — not delay or obfuscate answers.
But the city has tried to dodge questions about its workforce before — even though such information on municipal employees is available online to the taxpaying public.
In a prior lawsuit brought by Kurland on behalf of the Communications Workers of America, a judge ruled that details of race, gender, pay and more were fodder for FOILS.
“We brought that action in 2014 and the court granted it in 2016. It took us that long to get public records from the city that are supposed to be publicly available,” Kurland said.