The city of Portland last week settled a lawsuit brought by a former Fire & Rescue employee who alleged a decade’s worth of employment discrimination that he says forced him to resign his dream career.
Gabriel Watson, a firefighter and paramedic at the bureau since 2006, filed the suit in late 2021, naming his former employers and demanding a jury trial and economic damages upwards of $500,000.
Instead, Portland settled via an emergency city council ordinance, paying Watson $93,290.60 after an investigation concluded there was a risk the city would be found liable if the suit went to trial. On Monday, Portland’s city attorney, Robert Taylor, reiterated that his office felt it was prudent to settle given the uncertainty of litigation.
Watson, who started practicing law part-time in 2019, said in the suit he filed on his own behalf that despite years of exemplary performance as a paramedic, public information officer and member of the dive team at one of the busiest fire stations, the city “constructively terminated his position as a firefighter” but not before offering him a severance of one year’s pay and demanding he agree to waive any claims against the city in exchange.
In a January motion to dismiss Watson’s suit, representatives of the city denied the discrimination, writing that Watson was medically laid off in 2020 after he allegedly blacked out on the job and refused a medical fitness test.
The dispute goes back years. Watson was first investigated for...
Dozens claimed returning to homophobic Bangladesh would put their lives at risk. British immigration police are cracking down on a suspected criminal network believed to be behind dozens of fake as...