EMS workers scored a win in court this week when a judge determined their promotions should be based on “merit and fitness” – not decided by a “good old boys’ club,” a union leader said.
Several municipal unions petitioned the State Supreme Court to force the city to comply with a 2019 state law that requires the FDNY to give promotional tests for the positions of EMS Captain, Deputy Chief, Division Chief or Division Commander, according to court documents.
The unions claimed that for more than five years “respondents ignored the statute and continued to fill vacancies in the high-level, life-critical emergency medical ranks” through an arbitrary process, the documents show.
“It was basically a good old boys’ club,” Vincent Variale, president of the EMS officers’ union Local 3621, told The Post.
“This decision makes clear that EMS Officers in the FDNY are entitled to the same benefits as Fire Officers, including unbiased promotions through a competitive examination that selects those most qualified, not an arbitrary internal process that imposes unreasonable requirements and results in discrimination and promotions that are not based on merit and fitness,” Variale said in a statement.
The larger fight that lies ahead for the union and its members is getting EMS workers the same pay that FDNY smokeaters receive, he said.
“This is one major step in the right direction,” he said. “We hope the city will follow through.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the decision. The initial petition seeking action was filed while former Mayor Eric Adams was in office.
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