Hiring Practices of New Jersey Fire Department Found to Have Disparate Racial Impact
A New Jersey federal judge in Newark on Tuesday barred a Hudson County fire department from hiring firefighters until it expands its residency requirement, which adversely affects black applicants in violation of Title VII. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise ruled Tuesday in NAACP v. North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue, Civ. No. 07-1683, that there is no evidence that the requirement is central to firefighters' performance of their duties. Of the 323 full-time employees of the North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue -- which covers Guttenberg, North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken and West New York -- only two are black, according to the court documents submitted by the New Jersey employment lawyers for the NAACP's class-action suit. The NAACP claimed the agency's hiring practice -- drawing from a ranked list provided by the state Department of Personnel made up of exam-takers residing in the service area -- deprived black applicants of the chance of being hired.
