Here is the latest issue of “This & That” Tuesday. I hope you find it to be informative and useful.

 

Announcements

You can always check out my website for upcoming speaking engagements that are guaranteed to be of value to business owners or for a list of topics that I can speak on at Chambers, Clubs, Business Associations, etc. More details about the events, topics and Human Resources 4U, in general, can be found on my website.

Fidelity Engineering Corp. Settles EEOC Disability Discrimination and Retaliation Suit

Fidelity Engineering Corporation, a leading provider of mechanical heating, ventilation and air conditioning services in the Mid-Atlantic area, will pay $88,500 and provide significant equitable relief to settle a federal disability discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the EEOC.

 

Jose Arteaga Rivas was a sheet metal mechanic at Fidelity's Sparks, Md., headquarters location.  After he was medically released to return to work with no restrictions after heart valve replacement surgery, Fidelity wrongfully assumed that it was "too risky" for him to return to his job and failed to assign him to a vacant position as a reasonable accommodation of his disability.  According to the lawsuit, EEOC said that Arteaga could have returned to work, as his medical release indicated, without posing any safety threat to himself or others, but  Fidelity instead fired him.

 

The EEOC also charged that Fidelity later refused to rehire Arteaga for a vacant sheet metal position at its Beltsville, Md., location because of his disability and in retaliation for filing the EEOC charge.

 

The settlement, including the training provisions, is intended to protect all employees and applicants with disabilities from discrimination.

 

In addition to the monetary relief to Arteaga, the three-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit enjoins Fidelity Engineering Corporation from engaging in adverse employment actions or retaliation in violation of the ADA and requires the corporation to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified people with disabilities.  The company will:

• Implement a policy prohibiting discrimination  based on disability or retaliation and setting forth the company's obligation  to provide a reasonable accommodation, including reassignment to a vacant  position;
• distribute the revised policy to all employees,  include it in its employee handbook and post it on the company intranet;
• adopt a procedure to assess whether a disabled  employee presents a direct threat to the workplace;
• provide training to all human resources and  management personnel on the ADA;
• post a notice regarding the resolution of the  lawsuit, and;
• report to the EEOC regarding its compliance with  the consent decree.
• The EEOC added, "In cases like this one, employers need to ensure that they  have qualified personnel and concrete policies in place to address whether the  individual with a disability is truly a threat to himself or others."

 

City to Pay Women $1M in FDNY Gender-Bias Settlement
Five female EMTs sued the FDNY back in 2006.  Some call EMS a “good ol’ boys club”, when it comes to promotions within the department.

 

Currently, there is a civil service exam for EMT officers to become Lieutenants but any rank higher than that, such as Captain, are all appointed by the Chief.

 

This lawsuit has been carrying on for seven years until February, when the city finally settled out of court. The case is finalizing this week, according to the lawyer’s office representing the women.

 

According to the ‘Stipulation of Settlement’, the total price tag of the settlement is $1,063,507.  That is divvied up between the five women who received upwards of $265,000 per person.  The money is considered back wages, so it counts toward their pensions. 

 

But it is not the money that matters most, says Mary Dandridge, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

What she truly wants to see come out of this lawsuit is for EMS to create a civil service exam for those upper ranks that would keep potential discrimination out of the promotion process. The salary difference between Lieutenant and Division Commander can be $70,000 or more a year. 

 

To put this into perspective, NYPD, Corrections, Sanitations and even FDNY all have that kind of process for some of their own upper ranks. EMS is the only one that doesn't.  “That’s what we want to change,” said Dandridge.

 

An FDNY spokesman said that an exam is not enough to promote someone into a vital position like Captain, so they want to look at an applicant’s entire body of work.  Plus, he says, nearly 1/3 of EMS workforce is female.

 

For Division Commander, the highest rank that is just below Chief, there are 5 females out of 11.  Those numbers change a bit when you look at the rank of Captain:  16 females out of 60.  And that is the rank that is appointed, as opposed to tested.

 

Factoids

• 54% of job separations in August 2013 were voluntary, 11% greater than the prior year.
• 94% of recruiters use or plan to use social media for recruitment (Jobvite)
• Most common OSHA Violations for 2013

Standard                                             # of Violations

Fall protection in construction                        8,241

Hazard communication                                  6,156

Scaffolding in construction                             5,423

Respiratory protection                                    3,879

Electrical, wiring methods                              3,452

Powered industrial trucks                               3,340

Ladders in construction                                  3,311

Lockout/Tagout                                               3,254

Electrical, general                                           2,745

Machine guarding                                           2,701

 

Quotes

“A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.”

~Milton Berle~