5 EMTs to Lose Jobs, 15 Paramedics Face Demotion as Provisional Staff (free article)

Twenty veteran Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics had their careers upended earlier this month when they were told that they were going to be terminated or demoted effective March 29 because they were provisional employees.

The five EMTs and 15 paramedics have from eight to 19 years on the job. Under the state Civil Service Law, provisional employees are supposed to be terminated after nine months in a title unless there is no civil- service list from which to replace them. Word of the terminations and potential demotions spread quickly on social media and elicited strong reactions. 

'I Was Misinformed' 

“I thought I was civil service with the fingerprinting and the background check,” said FDNY EMT Jasmine Mullamphy, who now faces termination. The 35-year-old came on the job in October of 2006 and thought she had resolved the issue in 2012, when she took the EMT test.

“I didn’t hear back and I asked around and people assured me it could take two to three years to get on the civil-service list,” she said in a phone interview. “I was so misinformed about this process.”

Once Ms. Mullamphy learned of her pending termination, she went down to the headquarters of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services March 4 to find out the result of her test. “That’s when I learned that back in 2012 I had been disqualified because they said I never provided them with my high school diploma or my EMT certification, but that’s not true because when I was first hired on, both documents were required to get hired. Now, I just bought a house in Duchess County and I am married with three kids.”

Ms. Mullamphy’s husband works for the city Department of Education as a handyman.

Mentor to New Hires

“I have 12 1/2 years on this job and I am always teaching the new hires because, with so many members that get promoted to [Firefighter], we are always shorthanded,” she said.

“We feel this is really unfair,” Oren Barzilay, president of District Council 37 Local 2507, said in a phone interview. “Most of these people have over 10 years on the job. Now, because of some bureaucratic snafu, their careers are being put in jeopardy, and as it is, we are already shorthanded.”

He said the union was working with its lawyers and meeting with city officials to try and resolve the issue.  

According to both union and management sources, the FDNY’s move is part of its effort to bring itself into compliance with the 2007 Long Beach court decision, which granted provisional employees represented by a union some employment protections but, in order to uphold the rule regarding provisionals, required that their employment be limited to nine months. 

When this newspaper asked the FDNY about the demotions and terminations, the department’s top spokesperson said that he could only confirm the five EMT terminations. 

'Failed to Gain CS Status'

“There are five individuals (all EMTs) who have been given notice that they are being terminated, citing their provisional status,” wrote Deputy Commissioner Frank Gribbon in an email.  “Each has been given multiple opportunities to gain permanent civil-service status but have failed to do so.”

“We haven’t demoted 15 paramedics. Not yet, anyway,” he added. “There are a number of employees, beyond the 5 we already communicated about, who are similarly situated: that is, they have failed to obtain civil-service protection and, under the provisions of the Long Beach decision and in conjunction with ongoing conversations and negotiations with the city’s unions, provisional employees must obtain civil service protection  to maintain their position(s).”

Mr. Gribbon added that some paramedics in this cohort enjoyed civil-service protection only as EMTs and “would revert back to that title. But, again, no action has yet been taken; but it will to comply with the law.”

FDNY Paramedic Amanda Mezynski, 28, was hired in 2011 as an EMT and promoted in 2013 to Paramedic. She said in a phone interview that the union told her on March 2 she was set to be demoted but that the only official communication she got from the FDNY was a somewhat-ambiguous letter dated Feb. 22 that she received on March 1.

Drastic Pay-Cut Looms

She said the letter was signed by an FDNY Civilian Human Resource Manager and that FDNY EMS Chief James Booth was copied. “We want to alert you to the possibility it may be necessary to terminate your provisional service at a future date,” Ms. Mezynski said, reading from the letter. “However, you may be reassigned back to your civil-service title of Emergency Medical Specialist.”

She said the net result of a demotion would be to wipe away six years of her training and experience while drastically cutting her pay. 

“This would mean I would have my salary reduced to $33,000 base salary, and I would be relegated to basic life support at the EMT level,” she said. 

'Absolutely Shattered'

By losing her Paramedic standing, Ms. Mezynski would no longer be able to intubate patients, take EKGs or provide pharmacological support on the advanced level for a respiratory  or cardiac emergency. 

“I am absolutely shattered that I may not be able to work as a Paramedic and having these restraints placed on me is going to hurt the public because it's going to take me longer to get them to definitive care whether it's having Paramedics come to the scene to intubate, or me having to run them to the hospital to get them the intervention that I could have provided them sooner if I could have done it in the field,” she said.

We depend on the support of readers like you to help keep our publication strong and independent. Join us.