Ramon Camilo applied for employment as a police officer in Jersey City and was ranked on the list of eligible candidates. At the request of the City, the Civil Service Commission removed Camilo’s name from the list based on past incidents detailed in a background investigation report. The background report cited the fact that in…
When the City of Americus, Georgia failed to hire Roderick Jolivette as its fire chief, Jolivette sued, claiming he was discriminated against because he is African-American and in retaliation for suing his former employer for unlawful employment practices. A federal trial court found that the legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons the City proffered for hiring Roger Bivins,…
From North Dakota Question: Can an employee be compelled to use earned compensatory time before other forms of leave are utilized or within a specific date range (i.e. within pay cycle; within 14 days of earning)? Answer: In a non-union environment, the FLSA gives the employer the authority to force the employee to use comp…
An applicant referred to anonymously in a court’s opinion as “Farhan Doe” sued the New York Police Department, alleging he had been turned down for employment because of his religious beliefs. In 2009, Doe applied for appointment as an NYPD cadet. A NYPD psychologist found that Doe was psychologically unsuitable for appointment due to a…
Forty years ago, a group of African American citizens challenged the hiring practices of the Cleveland Fire Department. The result was a consent decree that required the City to hire minorities and non-minorities on the basis of a ratio. Over the years, the Department’s diversity greatly increased. From 1973 to 2000, for example, the percentage…
On December 14, 2002, Robert Woods took an open competitive civil service examination to become a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department. One of the qualifications to be a firefighter is that a candidate, by the date of appointment, must have successfully completed 30 semester credits from an accredited college or university or…
After the City of Minneapolis did not hire Hamid Amini for a position with the Minneapolis Police Department, Amini, who was born in Afghanistan, filed suit, alleging that the City discriminated against him based on his race, color, and national origin. Amini argued that he satisfied the City’s criteria to be placed on the eligible…
The New Jersey Civil Service Act allows an employer to use a Rule of Three to bypass a candidate who ranked higher on a competitive examination. When an employer does so, it must report to the State’s Department of Personnel (DOP) why it did so. The purpose for the report is to assure that the…
In 1995, the City of Chicago gave a written examination for positions in its Fire Department. Applicants who scored 89 and up were rated highly qualified, while those who scored 64 and below were rated not qualified. Those in between were rated qualified but were told in January 1996 that they were unlikely to be…
In July 1995, the City of Chicago administered a written examination to over 26,000 applicants seeking to serve in the Chicago Fire Department. After scoring the examinations, the City announced that it would begin drawing randomly from the top tier of scorers, i.e., those who scored 89 or above (out of 100), whom the City…
The North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue (NHRFR) is a consolidated fire department in New Jersey. In New Jersey, civil service positions such as firefighter are subject to the examination process administered by the New Jersey Department of Personnel. In order to be placed on the NHRFR’s hiring list, a candidate must also live in…
Ricky Martinez is a Muslim male of Middle-Eastern origin. Martinez filed a federal court lawsuit alleging that the Chicago Police Department failed to hire him as a probationary police officer because of his religion. In dismissing Martinez’s claim, the Court applied the “indirect method of proof” test to Martinez’s claim. Under the test, if a…
The Cleveland Fire Department entered into a racial discrimination consent decree in the 1970s, when blacks accounted for four percent of the firefighters in the Department, but consisted of 40 percent of the population living in the city. The consent decree set as a goal a fire department with a 33 1/3 percent minority makeup.…
There exists a significant racial disparity between the population of the City of New York and the makeup of the Fire Department of New York. In 2002, 25 percent of the city’s residents were black, and 27 percent were Hispanic. At the same time, 2.6 percent of FDNY firefighters were black, and 3.7 percent were…
In November 2005, the City of Harvey, Illinois decided to hire a deputy chief and three assistant chiefs for the Harvey Fire Department. A sign-up sheet was posted for persons interested in these positions. Nine people signed up to be interviewed for the assistant chief position including Rich Stockwell, Gary Stockwell, Ron DeYoung, and Steve…
Allen Bishop applied to be a police officer with the City of Texarkana, Texas. Bishop passed the written exam and fitness test and was placed on the eligibility list for potential appointment. After a background check, though, the Department informed Bishop that he had been removed from the eligibility list because he was not “license…
