{"id":264669,"date":"2021-06-02T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/minority-women-paid-half-as-much-as-white-men-under-garcia-complaint\/"},"modified":"2021-06-02T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T10:00:00","slug":"minority-women-paid-half-as-much-as-white-men-under-garcia-complaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/minority-women-paid-half-as-much-as-white-men-under-garcia-complaint\/","title":{"rendered":"#Minority women paid half as much as white men under Garcia: complaint"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Minority women paid half as much as white men under Garcia: complaint<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Mayoral candidate Kathryn\u00a0Garcia\u00a0says she supports pay equity, but during her six years as city Sanitation commissioner she presided over a two-tier system that funneled women and minorities into lower-wage enforcement jobs while white, male counterparts did similar work for higher pay and better benefits, a federal discrimination complaint charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a good campaign going, but in the department when she was working with Sanitation, she didn\u2019t help with women or help with equal work or equal pay,\u201d Dameka Dowdy told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was in a position to bring it to light, and she did nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dowdy, a 48-year-old Bronx resident, is one of 13 Sanitation enforcement agents who\u2019ve filed a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim against the agency claiming unequal pay.<\/p>\n

The complaint was filed in February, months before Garcia scored the endorsement of The New York Times and started rising in the polls. She\u2019s now in the top tier of candidates for the June 22 primary alongside Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.<\/p>\n

The agents say in the EEOC claim that another agency division, the Sanitation police, also issue summonses, investigate complaints and enforce regulations \u2014 but they get paid twice the salaries, have unlimited sick time, prescript<\/a>ion drug coverage and more generous pensions.<\/p>\n

Unlike the enforcement agents, the police carry guns and hold commercial drivers licenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re different groups inside the department but when we\u2019re doing the same job, it\u2019s crazy that the disparity is there,\u201d Dowdy said.<\/p>\n

\"Sanitation
Sanitation enforcement agents filed a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim against the Department of Sanitation.<\/figcaption>
James Keivom<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sanitation police are political appointees\u00a0drawn from the pool of existing Sanitation workers, making them largely white and male. Enforcement agents are civil servants hired from outside the department. They are predominantly women and minorities.<\/p>\n

The department introduced enforcement agents in 1981 to open up a new front in its \u201cwar on grime.\u201d The agents were tasked with fining merchants and homeowners for filthy sidewalks.<\/p>\n

Sanitation police were supposed to get freed up to focus on more serious violations like illegal dumping probes, but they still handle many of the same tasks performed by their enforcement counterparts from providing security at department facilities to ticketing dog walkers for failing to clean up animal droppings.<\/p>\n

The police are paid an average of $77,000 after five years on the job, according to a copy of the EEOC complaint. Dowdy, a black woman, makes just $50,000 after 15 years. Black and Hispanic male colleagues with over 30 years on the job earn at most $57,000.<\/p>\n

As a mayoral candidate\u00a0Garcia\u00a0has called for fairer treatment of female workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen need #EqualPay now. Full stop,\u201d she tweeted on March 24<\/a> in observance of Equal Pay Day.<\/p>\n

A month later Garcia called out another agency for discriminatory practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC\u2019s foster care system disproportionately impacts Black and low-income families and deepens the cycle of poverty. When a system produces racist and economically discriminatory outcomes, that system must be redesigned to serve all with justice and dignity,\u201d she tweeted in April<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just find it quite funny that she\u2019s running for mayor and even saying that because when enforcement came to her for some assistance, she just brushed it off like we were nothing,\u201d said Carmelita Gordon-Fleetwood, another black agent involved in the EEOC case.<\/p>\n

\"Kathryn
Seen here in 2017, then-Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia \u201cturned a blind eye\u201d to workers\u2019 complaints, one tells The Post. <\/figcaption>
R. Umar Abbasi<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the agents held a rally in 2017 to push for equal status with Sanitation police, a spokesman for then-Commissioner Garcia said that wasn\u2019t possible because they take a separate civil-service exam, according to an article in the Chief Leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s very unfair, and I feel like at least some of us should have been given an opportunity if you\u2019re not going to make the pay at least close, give us an opportunity to join that realm,\u201d said Sandra Castro, who is also a black enforcement agent.<\/p>\n

Philip Seelig, an attorney for the agents who plans to file a class action lawsuit against the Sanitation Department this summer after the EEOC reviews the claim, said Garcia had the power to push for change.<\/p>\n

Seelig, onetime president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, worked with former Correction Department Commissioner Benjamin Ward<\/a> under Mayor Ed Koch in the early 1980s to push for pension reform for his largely minority workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommissioners can advocate and they can speak up,\u201d Seelig told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe either turned a blind eye or wasn\u2019t watching the store and that\u2019s her obligation as commissioner,\u201d Seelig said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A spokesman for the Sanitation Department said the two jobs are very different.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanitation Police are peace officers who carry firearms, and must hold commercial driver\u2019s licenses so that in a snow emergency, they can be pulled from their normal duties and assigned to drive a plow.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of these things are the case for Sanitation Enforcement Agents, who play a vital role by observing conditions and issuing citations but cannot compel changes in behavior and are not authorized to operate heavy machinery,\u201d said spokesman Joshua Goodman.<\/p>\n

\"Mayoral
Mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia campaigns in outside PS 9 in Manhattan.<\/figcaption>
Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Goodman said Garcia worked to close the pay gap by advocating for enforcement agents to get extra points on the Sanitation worker civil service exam so they could be eligible to become department police and earn a higher salary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a woman leading a majority-male workforce, Kathryn Garcia worked hard to change the system to recruit, promote and retain a diverse team that reflects New York City,\u201d her campaign spokeswoman, Annika Reno, told The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers speak for themselves; under Commissioner Garcia the number of chiefs of color nearly doubled to become a quarter of the department\u2019s leadership. She also overhauled the department\u2019s recruitment process to do more outreach to underrepresented communities and as a result more Black applicants took the last Sanitation exam than any other ethnic group,\u201d Reno said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs mayor, Kathryn will direct the City\u2019s Office of Labor Relations to enter into negotiations with the SEA union to work toward equal pay,\u201d Reno said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n