Public Employee Press

Workers boot bad boss at FDNY

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

After the union sparked an internal investigation, the Fire Dept. transferred a supervisor who had waged a campaign of terror against members. Complaints from Local 375 members at the Bureau of Fire Prevention led to hearings where the workers blew the whistle on the combative, punitive and offensive management style of the supervisor.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts brought the members’ allegations to the attention of Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and demanded action. The Bureau of Investigations and Trials, which handles the Fire Department’s internal investigations, held several hearings on the charges.

The supervisor created such a stressful work environment, the workers testified, that they worried about their job security. Seven members needed counseling. The union members also filed equal employment opportunity complaints charging that the supervisor’s behavior reflected a gender and racial bias.

Commissioner Scoppetta wrote Ms. Roberts in October that the “management practices” of the supervisor were “were inappropriate and do not support a healthy and productive work environment.” The supervisor “will be directed to undergo specialized managerial training, including EEO and Diversity Training,” Mr. Scoppetta said.

With support from Local 375 Fire Dept. Chapter President Suresh K. Deshmukh and Vice President Darryl Chalmers, Local 375 delegate Julius Sguillaro, DC 37 Assistant General Counsels Thomas Cooke, Kim Hsueh and Leonard Polletta and Local 375 Grievance Rep Michelle Keller worked with the members in the case.

“This is an important victory. It shows that workers can fight back and win even though the power structure of the workplace is weighted heavily in favor of management,” said Claude Fort, president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375.

“When we speak in one voice against a workplace injustice, we can prevail,” Ms. Roberts said.

Ethnic slurs
At the internal hearings, workers charged that the supervisor had created a hostile work environment. They told of abusive remarks, false allegations of wrongdoing, surveillance, inappropriate questioning about confidential medical information, denial of transfer requests and repeated punitive transfers. Members testified that the supervisor swore at them and used ethnic slurs and anti-male remarks.

According to Local 375 members, the supervisor’s heavy-handed example set a tone that permitted other managers to feel they could also intimidate workers.

One member testified that a manager hung up an effigy of him. In his letter to Ms. Roberts, Mr. Scoppetta also sharply criticized a second manager. Describing the person’s management practices as “inconsistent and, at times, questionable and ill advised,” Mr. Scoppetta said that the other manager would also be ordered to undergo “specialized managerial training including EEO and Diversity Training.”