The Town of Clarence, N.Y., and the Clarence, Harris Hill, East Amherst and Swormville Fire Protection Districts and Volunteer Fire Companies will pay $441,740 to settle a class age discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The damages will be made in retroactive payments to a group of 35 firefighters, including the beneficiaries for eight deceased firefighters who had been discriminated against based on their age. Several firefighters will also receive increased monthly pension amounts going forward.
The EEOC’s lawsuit charged that the town and the fire departments refused to let volunteer firefighters over age 62 accrue service credit under their “Length of Service Award Programs” or “LOSAPs,” the equivalent of a retirement pension, because of their age. The suit further charged that the East Amherst Fire Protection District and Volunteer Fire Company prohibited volunteer firefighters over the age 55 from accruing credit. As a result, the senior firefighters kept working but did not receive credit for their service once they reached the maximum age. The EEOC said this age restriction constituted a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), a federal law that protects workers age 40 and older from age discrimination.
Although the fire companies amended their LOSAPs in January 2006 to allow firefighters to continue to earn award credit without regard to age, they did not credit those firefighters for the years in which they had lost out. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, Civ. No. 1:11-CV-00286, on March 30 after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement, following an investigation by the EEOC’s Buffalo Local Office.