So, while everyone has been paying attention to the Ricci v. DeStefano case, which dealt with a group of white firefighters who claim that they should’ve been promoted, another case involving New Haven firefighters has been making its way through the state court system.
(As an aside, are there any firefighters in New Haven who haven’t brought an employment discrimination claim against the city?)
Today, the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed a jury verdict which found that, by promoting other firefighters through a practice called ‘‘underfilling,’’ the City of New Haven (and others) had discriminated against several African-American firefighters on the basis of race in violation of their right to equal protection under the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution.
The case, Broadnax v. City of New Haven (download here), won’t be officially released until next week, but it dates back to some decisions made in the 1990s.
Frankly, because the case is decided on equal protection grounds, it will be of little impact to private employers in the state. For government entities, though the case, delves into the practice of "underfilling" and says that, at least in this situation, it was handled properly.
What is "underfilling"? Don’t bother looking it up in Google. But the Connecticut Supreme Court provides its definition:
Underfilling, as the term is used in the present case, occurs when the fire department promotes an individual to a particular position, and the city’s budget has not allocated funds to pay the salary of that position, whereby funds for a vacant higher ranking position are used to pay for the newly appointed lower ranking position. For example, if ten individuals are promoted to lieutenant, and only five vacancies exist in the budget for the position of lieutenant, but several vacancies exist in a higher ranking position, such as captain or battalion chief, the first five newly appointed lieutenants are promoted and paid with budgeted lieutenant funds, but the next five newly appointed underfilled lieutenants are paid with funds reserved
for the vacant captain or battalion chief positions. Thus, when an individual employed at a lower ranking position is paid from funds reserved for a higher ranking position, that individual is considered to have been underfilled.’
Got that?
In any event, the Court here says New Haven’s practices were not discriminatory and that the evidence presented by the firefighters fell far short of establishing their case.
For New Haven, the case will surely bring a sigh of relief that it can close yet another case involving firefighters in the city. But don’t expect that we’ve heard the last of a group of firefighters. Yet another group of firefighters have been requesting judicial relief as well lately.