NYC Department of Sanitation Discriminates Against Female, Minority Enforcement Agents, Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) discriminates against female and minority employees by enacting “artificial barrier[s] to entry” for higher-paying sanitation police positions.

Filed by over a dozen workers, the 16-page case claims that DSNY and New York City have essentially relegated female and minority employees to sanitation enforcement agent or associate sanitation enforcement agent positions while barring them from becoming “sanitation police.” According to the suit, sanitation workers who are designated as police are provided with better benefits and pay despite having essentially the same duties as sanitation enforcement agents.

The case alleges, however, that the sanitation police are predominantly white and male. Per the suit, there are more than twice as many Black enforcement agents and female enforcement agents as there are Black sanitation police officers and female sanitation police officers, respectively.

The lawsuit argues that the defendants’ requirements for sanitation police positions, including that an individual be able to lift up to 150 pounds and maintain a commercial driver’s license (CDL), are unnecessary for the job’s primary duties and essentially act as an artificial barrier to entry that disparately impacts female and minority workers.

The case claims the defendants have violated various federal, state and city civil rights and equal pay laws.

The DSNY employs both sanitation enforcement agents and sanitation workers, some of whom are designated as “sanitation police,” the suit relays. These individuals, the complaint explains, are employees in civil service titles of sanitation worker and sanitation supervisor “working out of title as police.”

According to the case, both enforcement agents and sanitation police are responsible for essentially the same duties, including issuing summonses, investigating complaints, enforcing regulations, testifying in court and effecting arrests.

“Enforcement Agents perform work requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions as Sanitation Police,” the complaint relays. “Enforcement Agents have the same responsibilities and carry out the same job functions as the Sanitation Police.”

The suit claims, however, that while enforcement agents are “overwhelmingly minorities,” the workers who make up the sanitation police are predominantly white and male. Per the case, sanitation police are paid significantly higher salaries, $77,318 after 5.5 years of service, than enforcement agents, many of whom receive less than $45,000 after 15 or even 30 years of service.

Moreover, sanitation police positions come with much better benefits, including longevity pay, unlimited sick leave, three-quarters pay for accident disability retirement and 20- or 22-year service retirement, the complaint contends.

Per the suit, an enforcement agent who wants to become a sanitation police officer must take the civil service examination and meet certain physical requirements that “have nothing to do with police or enforcement duties,” such as lifting and carrying up to 150 pounds “dozens of times per hour.”

Sanitation workers are also required to maintain a CDL even though such a license is “not necessary to perform Sanitation Police duties,” the lawsuit argues.

The case claims the defendants’ policies and procedures amount to discriminatory conduct against female and minority employees and are not “justified by business necessity.”

The lawsuit looks to represent all past, present and future female and minority sanitation enforcement agents and associate sanitation enforcement agents.

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