Results tagged “departmentofenvironmentalprotection”

Jerome Park has always had its share of fans. Since it was acquired by the city in 1940, the north Bronx patch of greenery, which rests adjacent to the Jerome Park Reservoir, has provided hundreds of Bronx High School of Science and Lehman College students with a place to read, walk and neck (we're talking about the good ole' innocent days here).

Two female employees with the city's Department of Environmental Protection are suing the department on federal discrimination charges. The Daily News reports, "Lillian Padilla and Magda Rodriguez say they get the hardest and dirtiest jobs, are routinely threatened and insulted, and are denied showers or changing rooms after working in sewage." The pair say they've had pornography put in their trucks, been called "bitches" and "dykes" (they are lesbians) and been threatened when they've complained. They also claim that other female employees have left due to the atmosphere—out of the 426 DEP laborers, five are women—with Padilla adding, "I once had a supervisor telling me that he would never have a woman telling a man what to do." The DEP said it is investigating the complaint, which has been filed with the EEOC. Rodriguez said, "I just want the policies changed so that women have equal rights. I have no shower. She has no shower. We work in sewage. That's what we do all day."

The Staten Island Advance reports that thieves, posing as NYC Department of Environmental Protection employees, are targeting senior citizens. Apparently the robbers claim they must "check pipes, read or fix water meters, or collect cash for unpaid water bills," and they have struck five times in the last two months of 2008, taking jewelry, cash and credit cards. The DEP says its employees wear uniforms, show ID and never ask for cash, "We want to alert the community that this is going on and people have to be very careful." According to the Advance, cops think the robbers are part of a "roving band that travels up and down the East Coast, stopping only long enough to accumulate a haul and then leaving for another town before they get caught."