Thursday, 4:30 PM
Judge orders jakes to hire minorities
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff
A federal judge Thursday ordered fire departments around the state to offer jobs to about 50 minority candidates who had been excluded from working as firefighters by a discriminatory hiring exam.
The ruling ends a 22-month legal struggle over hiring practices within the state’s fire departments that was prompted by a discrimination lawsuit filed by four black men from Lynn who aspired to be firefighters.
In August, US District Court Judge Patti D. Saris ruled that the cognitive ability test administered to firefighting candidates around the state in 2002 and 2004 discriminated against minority applicants and violated federal civil rights law as well as a three-decade-old court order to integrate Massachusetts fire departments.
Saris found that the exam sought to evaluate skills that had little to do with fighting fires.
