Advocacy group hits Boston over worker diversity

A litigious advocacy group is blasting the town for what it characterizes as a scarcity of racial and gender variety in its first-responder and different metropolis division ranks, which it stated largely haven’t modified previously half-decade.

The Legal professionals for Civil Rights group despatched out a press launch and an “open letter” to the Wu administration Thursday slamming the town for failing to shut gaps for the reason that final time LCR surveyed numerous departments.

Particularly, the group known as out the Boston Police Division, Boston EMS, the Boston Public Well being Fee, the Boston Water and Sewer Fee and the Boston Public Works Division, which all responded to data requests about employees’ demographic make-up — in addition to Boston Fireplace Division, which LCR stated didn’t reply to a data request.

“General, the companies’ demographic disclosures reveal an alarming pattern of serious underrepresentation amongst girls and folks of coloration inside the municipal workforce,” LCR wrote, calling on the town to provoke a third-party audit and take different steps to vary that.

LCR stated the police division, for instance, went from 65% white in 2016 to 64.9% white now, whereas the town’s general inhabitants is about half white.

Mayor Michelle Wu’s workplace stated in a press release, “One of the essential alternatives for affect by metropolis authorities is hiring a workforce that’s consultant of and deeply related to the communities we serve. Metropolis jobs ought to assist shut wealth gaps in Boston and elevate the expertise who love our neighborhoods and know them greatest. As we proceed to construct our crew, reshape hiring practices, and construct pipelines to Metropolis jobs alongside group companions, we glance to speed up progress on this essential precedence.”