Twenty veteran Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics had their careers upended earlier this month when they were told that they were going to be terminated or demoted effective March 29 because they were provisional employees.
The five EMTs and 15 paramedics have from eight to 19 years on the job. Under the state Civil Service Law, provisional employees are supposed to be terminated after nine months in a title unless there is no civil- service list from which to replace them. Word of the terminations and potential demotions spread quickly on social media and elicited strong reactions. “I thought I was civil service with the fingerprinting and the background check,” said FDNY EMT Jasmine Mullamphy, who now faces termination. The 35-year-old came on the job in October of 2006 and thought she had resolved the issue in 2012, when she took the EMT test.