Black EMTs Say District of Columbia Stiffed Them on Retirement

The nation’s capital was hit with a proposed class action by Black emergency medical technicians who say they are being denied retirement benefits due to their race.

The five named plaintiffs transferred from EMT positions to “all hazard” firefighting based on assurances that “upon transferring to the firefighter function, they would get credited for the time they served” as EMTs toward their retirement in the defined benefit plan, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Despite this promise, the city said in 2021 that the plaintiffs are no longer vested in ...