NEW YORK — A judge has recommended the FDNY fire a firefighter for wearing an anti-affirmative-action T-shirt to work.
NY Post reported that the 17-year fire service veteran created a hostile work environment after disobeying orders for wearing a “Merit Matters” shirt that opposes alteration of the department’s admissions test to accommodate minority recruits.
“The FDNY is a para-military organization and may restrict a uniformed member’s appearance so long as the restrictions are rationally related to the department’s legitimate interests,” Administrative Law Judge Alessandra Zorgniotti said.
The judge said the firefighter engaged in a “persistent and long-term pattern of harassment” and was guilty of “repeated acts of insubordination,” according to the report.
“We’re going to fight this for as long as it takes to get vindicated,” said the firefighter’s lawyer Adam Weiss. “There are only two sides to the story, and it looks like [the judge] took the prosecution’s side of the story and ignored ours.”
The shirt became an issue after the firefighter got into a heated exchange on May 6, 2012, with a black colleague over a suit filed by the Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization of black firefighters that has called the FDNY’s hiring practices discriminatory.
Weiss said he expects Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro to make a decision on his client’s fate in the next month.