Firefighters Age Bias Lawsuit Settled

[gamewell45 258]

Two dozen Long Island Firefigthers will receive monetary benefits as a result of a ruling in a involving the Bayville Fire Company and three Town of Oyster Bay Villages concerning senior firefighters being denied pension related benefits because of their age.

This ruling could have an effect on all volunteer departments state wide who deny their members participation in the plan after they reach age 65.

http://www.newsday.c...ttled-1.1859155

[x635 4,066]

I would have loved to read the article. Too bad Newsday/Cablevision makes you pay for it. Hopefully it will come out in another source.

[ac316scu 31]

I would have loved to read the article. Too bad Newsday/Cablevision makes you pay for it. Hopefully it will come out in another source.

Bayville firefighters' age discrimination suit settled

Originally published: April 12, 2010 8:17 PM

By ZACHARY R. DOWDY zachary.dowdy@newsday.com

As many as two dozen Bayville firefighters will receive monetary awards as part of a settlement in a lawsuit against the Bayville Fire Company and three Town of Oyster Bay villages - entities that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said unlawfully denied the firefighters pension-related benefits because of age.

The EEOC Monday announced the settlement to the case against the fire company and the villages of Bayville, Mill Neck and Centre Island, saying the firefighters will share the awards amounting to between $180,000 and $240,000, and includes receiving an increased monthly pension benefit.

The agency brought the lawsuit on behalf of the firefighters because it claimed they had been barred from accruing credit toward a "length of service award," the equivalent of a retirement pension, because of their age.

The entities did not allow accrual of the benefit for firefighters above 65, an apparent violation of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects workers older than 40 from age discrimination.

"The system in effect penalized older firefighters because of their age, and that was simply illegal," EEOC chairwoman Jacqueline A. Berrien said in a statement. "We welcome the decision to settle this case in a way that ensures that these brave firefighters, who do heroic work, do not receive different retirement benefits simply because of their age."

Attorneys for the villages and fire company could not be reached for comment.

The case was similar to others brought by the agency and settled on Long Island.

In January, the Village of Mineola and its fire department agreed to pay $237,072 to settle a bias lawsuit brought by the EEOC on behalf of 25 volunteers firefighters who were denied pension credit for service after they turned 60.

[Beekman 5]

I don't believe it has to do with Departments that "deny" their older members participation in LOSAP but it's part of the program that the residents vote for/against. When Beekman's program was approved by the voters in 1999, the cash out age is 62. The question that Beekman has asked, and I couldn't tell you who they asked, was "do the voters need to approve raising the age for LOSAP?" The answers they got were "yes" and they didn't want to risk losing everything entirely with this economy.