Claim Contract Violations
FDNY Trades Staff Sues on Hours, Pay

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Twenty-eight former and current trade workers employed by the Fire Department's Buildings Maintenance Division have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging they were deprived of the prevailing rates of wages and supplemental benefits while working for the city.

SAYS THEY WERE SHAFTED: Brian Colella, a former Fire Department Electrician, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit charging that 28 senior trades workers employed by the FDNY improperly had their hours extended and were denied the wage rates to which they were entitled.

Suit Claims Rules Change

The class-action suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims that supervisors in the FDNY BMD changed its sign-in and sign-out rules for more than half of the 50 carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, masons and other workers who kept firehouses in good repair.

Former BMD Electrician Brian Colella filed the lawsuit pro se on behalf of himself and 27 colleagues after unsuccessful attempts to involve the City Comptroller's Office and the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations in the dispute. He said the case revealed "improper governmental actions" and has asked for $2 million in damages for the plaintiffs.

Mr. Colella said FDNY supervisors never explained why some workers were singled out and others allowed to follow regular procedures.

"Only thing I can see is that the 28 who were affected by this were mostly senior employees," he commented.

Law Dept. Silent

The city's Law Department, listed as the defendant in Mr. Colella's suit, declined to comment.

"Due to pending litigation, we cannot discuss this case further," said Paul Marks, Deputy Chief of the Labor and Employment Law Division.

According to documents filed in court, the employees' problems began in July 2000, when Joseph M. Mastropietro, Director of the Buildings Maintenance Division, told them to start work before the scheduled time, and allegedly required the plaintiffs to stay at work after the scheduled finish time.

Conflicting Orders

The 28 employees were reportedly ordered by the supervisor to sign in at the borough command post nearest to their residence for shift assignments every morning. But they were also told that they had to be at their assigned jobs no later than the start of shift at 7:30 a.m.. That meant reporting to the command post at least an hour ahead of schedule to allow for commuting if they were sent to a different borough.

Prior procedures allowed workers to park their city-owned vehicles in the firehouse closest to their residence at the end of each shift, and call headquarters for the day's assignment when they clocked in at the firehouse at 7:30 a.m.

Up to 3 Hours More

Twenty-two other BMD employees were allowed to continue that procedure, but the rest were forced to add anywhere from one to three hours to their workdays, according to Mr. Colella.

"I was being sent to places like Brooklyn and all over Manhattan and parts of Queens," he said. "Meanwhile, I live in Staten Island. It used to be that most of the time the workers were assigned to their boroughs whenever possible because it made sense - suddenly the 28 of us were being ordered all over the five boroughs, but told we had to be at the day's assignment by 7:30 a.m. regardless of where it was."

Mr. Colella charged in his lawsuit that the change violated several collectively-bargained contracts reached between the trade unions representing the workers and the FDNY. None of the workers were compensated for the extra hours tacked on to their shifts in the morning, or for the commutes home after they clocked out at 3:30 p.m.

Unions No Help

When the 28 workers protested, first to FDNY supervisors, Mr. Colella said their complaints were mostly ignored. He appealed to his union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, but got no assistance. The other workers who reached out to their union representatives were also rebuffed, he said. Calls to Local 3 and several other unions were not returned by the time this paper went to press.

"I was told flat-out by my union that they weren't going to get involved, and someone at the Municipal Labor Committee said the same thing," he said. "Nobody wanted to make an issue out of the fact that we were being forced to work longer days without compensation that we were contractually due."

Mr. Colella was eventually suspended for 30 days, allegedly over disciplinary problems, although he said the charges had been "trumped up" by department supervisors angry at him for complaining.

The workers continued to grieve their problems to the FDNY, and lodged complaints with Lillian Inzerillo, the FDNY Director of Labor Relations, but were not satisfied with the answers they got regarding their prevailing wage concerns.

Claims Bias in Charges

In February 2003, the 28 plaintiffs filed individual notices of claim with the City's Comptroller's office, requesting that it investigate their prevailing wage issue.

Mr. Colella, who had been written up on disciplinary charges several times since 2000, was dismissed by the FDNY three months later. He said in his lawsuit that the charges were "falsifications" made up by supervisors and that his termination was retaliatory because he had been acting as a "whistle-blower" about abuses in his division.

Court papers showed that the Comptroller's Office initially considered the group's claims worthy of investigation. But in a March 3, 2005 letter to Mr. Colella, a supervisor wrote that "according to the FDNY, the issues raised in your notice of claim are the subject of a current arbitration proceeding. In addition, any alleged labor law violated filed with the Comptroller's Office must be submitted by your union. In view of the above, we are closing your file."

Phantom Arbitration?

Mr. Colella denied ever attending arbitration hearings or grievance procedures with FDNY officials, and said none of the 27 other plaintiffs had either.

A grievance was filed in July 2003 with the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations, but Mr. Colella insists that no hearings were held.

A final communication to Mr. Colella from the Comptroller's Office in December 2005 stated, "We have been informed by the Fire Department just this week that the Step 3 grievance has been presented to arbitration and that a decision is expected shortly. For further information please contact your union representative."

Mr. Colella said the class-action lawsuit was filed as a last resort after getting no relief through the unions or city agencies meant to investigate allegations of unfair labor practices.

Grievance Rejected

In 2003 he filed a complaint with the city's Board of Collective Bargaining, charging that he'd been denied union representation when called into "supervisory conferences" with his then-boss, Mr. Mastropietro, and other FDNY officials.

The BCB tossed the grievance, upholding the city's argument that there was no provision guaranteeing such a right in Mr. Colella's union's contract even though accusations made in those meetings led to his firing.

Before he was dismissed, Mr. Colella filed several grievances regarding Mr. Mastroprieto, claiming that the supervisor created a hostile work environment for the employees seeking overtime pay.

Several of the plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit have subsequently been fired or been forced to leave, Mr. Colella said, including one who was disciplined for too many absences while taking time off under the Family Medical Leave Act to help a family member struggling with multiple sclerosis.