Posted on 08/02/2005 4:17:08 PM PDT by Jonx6
By Joshunda Sanders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
The Austin Fire Department has doused its hiring until its union contract expires Sept. 30, officials said Monday.
The decision comes after several concerns were raised about the department's screening process, the latest of which was a notice in June from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saying that Austin's physical ability test was unfair to female applicants.
Michelle DeCrane, a spokeswoman for the Austin Fire Department, said that the city's physical test mirrors others used by fire departments across the country and that the EEOC notice would affect the whole country, not just Austin.
Acting Fire Chief Jim Evans said the freeze on the hiring process would not harm the department's staffing levels. It currently has 995 active firefighters.
About 1,300 applicants, how- ever, will be affected.
Evans said the department will try to call or e-mail every candidate to tell them about the freeze and will stay in contact with them until a new hiring process is in place.
"Naturally," he said, "there are a lot of people who are going to be upset."
Evans said there would have been about 60 cadets in the next class, the city's109th. About 2,300 people took the written exam in March, he said, and there were initially 3,000 applicants.
Spokesman Mike Frick said that the department will throw out the test results and that all 1,300 active applicants will have to start the hiring process anew once a new contract is in place.
The department expects to resume hiring under a new contract or under the Civil Service Act on Oct. 1.
The union and the city have been in negotiations regarding a new contract.
Mike Martinez, president of the Austin Association of Professional Firefighters, did not return calls Monday. Barbara Rush, a spokeswoman for the association, declined to comment.
There are several components to the department's hiring process, including a written exam, a behavioral personnel assessment and a physical ability test.
The national cutoff time for completion of the physical test is 10 minutes and 20 seconds, Evans said. During that time, applicants are tested on the physical demands required of firefighters such as dragging a hose and raising a ladder.
The last time the test was given in Austin in 2004, Evans said, the failure rate for women was 50 percent. When it was first administered in 2000, 87 percent of female cadets failed it.
The EEOC says that the high failure rate for women points to a cutoff time that is legally insufficient.
The EEOC complaint is not connected to other challenges the department has faced in the hiring process this year, including grievances filed by the Austin Association of Professional Firefighters.
In April, the union filed a grievance challenging a comprehension test.
Then, other concerns were raised within the department about rating inconsistencies for the behavioral test and oral interviews.
The combination of the grievances and the EEOC notice, Evans said, created "insurmountable obstacles that AFD could not, in good conscience, ignore."
"This decision has been a work in progress," he said, "and unfortunately, no matter what we decided to do, there were going to be some unhappy people."
joshundasanders@statesman.com; 445-3630
Classic.
That should make everyone feel more diverse and inclusive while our houses burn down.
My dad is high up in AFD and I was in the middle of the hiring process. We both are mad about this but they are planning to start again sometime in Oct. and start the cadet class in spring and fully hire them in the fall in time to staff the new station.
So9
Let's also hire some lardbutts that can't climb ladders or get in upstairs windows.
Celebrate diversity, while your house is burning down!
Ward has been talking about this on his show.
What's next a test for breast feeding firefighters?
"Can they carry a 105lb person while they are breast feeding an infant"
Yep, went through the same crap in the Air Force years ago. Physical requirement to lift 90 lbs over your head - directly related to specific real life jobs. Females started showing up - most could not do the actual tasks.
Made for some interesting times - the boss went whacko when he found out we were reporting manning status counting only those that could actually do the job, people refusing to go on jobs with the females that they knew could not perform, etc.
What a crock.
LVM
Diversity is more important than survival.
Good lord.
They'd rather let us burn than be un-PC.
Damn Straight. Good observation.
Ah, come on Jonx6, we can stay in our burning homes a minute or two longer can't we? No problem. sarcasm.
Kate O'Beirne : How is America better off if the real physical demands of a job have to be watered down to accommodate women? If I, as an all-suffering taxpayer, have to be evacuated from a building, I used to be carried by a male firefighter. I am now dragged by my ankles, as my head hits every single stair going down three stories. I prefer being carried. I assume most taxpayers prefer being carried.
Gloria Steinem: It's better to drag them out, because there's less smoke down there. I mean, we're probably killing people by carrying them out at that height, you know, so I mean, you know, we need to look sensibly here at these jobs and what they really require, and not just some idea of what macho is.
Bella Abzug: That's true.
John Stossel: They've had to change the test.
Bella Abzug: Well, that's all right. Institutions have to adjust. If there are still physical problems which prevent certain activities, those activities should be assisted, so that itin a way, with technology, so that it's possible.
John Stossel: They should give them an electric axe?
Bella Abzug: Whatever is required.
What mayor was he talking about, cause Koch was waaay over 200 lbs.
OMGosh. This topic was all over the radio this afternoon also. Most folks want to be carried out!
LOL, yeah, it must be a generic mayor.
So9
...in full gear.
-PJ
Great. At who's expense?
If some little lady can carry me (and not drag me causing more injuries) out from a burning building or ditch, then fine.
But I doubt it.
No matter how you twist it, women just arent built for it, unless they had relatives that used to swim for East Germany.
A job is a job. So long the feminazi's screamed for "equality" now they want to make it easier? How equal is that?
What a load.
My dad and grampa (LAFD) are spinning in their graves.
It sounds as this witch is already suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
Indeed... and I think you have your w's and b's mixed up. :)
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