‘Betrayed’: Sick 9/11 first responders on brink of losing jobs despite lawBy Reuven Fenton and Gabrielle Fonrouge
July 31, 2022
When Bronx EMT Vanessa Rodriguez spent close to a year collecting body parts at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, she never realized the toxic dust she inhaled would later give her stage-three cancer.
Two decades later, the now-disabled mother of two is facing termination from the FDNY and preparing to apply for welfare after she learned the “unlimited” sick leave she thought she was entitled to under a 2019 state bill is not unlimited after all, despite what politicians promised.
“I thought that the city would take care of us,” Rodriguez, who lost her job in May, told The Post during a recent interview.
“I feel left out, like, ‘Here you go. You did your job. Now get out.’ It’s just so unfair the way they are handling things.”
Rodriguez, 47, is one of a half-dozen or so FDNY EMS members who learned this summer they’ll be fired for being out sick for more than year with 9/11-related injuries under the state’s “unlimited” sick leave law for public workers who responded to the terrorist attack.
When the FDNY informed the workers they’ll be canned if they don’t come back to work, many of them were in the midst of lengthy legal battles with the New York City Employee Retirement System, or NYCERS, to obtain an early “three-quarters” disability pension.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/07/31/sick-9-11-first-responders-on-brink-of-losing-jobs-despite-law/
