A Mount Vernon dialysis police officer is calling the department to fire him just months before he retires.
A Mount Vernon, N.Y., police officer of 19 years is speaking out after receiving a layoff notice just six months before his retirement. compromising its health benefits as he is on dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant.
Despite being medically cleared to perform light duties at work, the department informs Derek Williams is unable to work and will be fired on December 31st. ABC 7 NY reports. Williams, 45, shared his story with retired Mount Vernon officers who rallied to his defense.
Williams, a former member of the elite emergency services, contracted COVID-19 in 2020 after months of working double shifts. Although doctors cleared him to work, the department classified his kidney failure as a non-work-related illness, denied his requests for dialysis and housing, and stopped his pay when he became too sick to work, leaving him with just a few months less pension.
“I am on dialysis for nine hours seven days a week to maintain my health. I wouldn’t have survived without it,” Williams said.
“Derek’s character made him come to work to support this city and the people of this city during the worst epidemic we’ve ever had,” said former Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Sean Harris.
After receiving his layoff notice during the holiday season, Williams asked to keep his job, but his request was denied.
“I begged for my job. I begged to come in at whatever hours I could do, and I was told there was no light duty for me,” Williams said.
Williams is now speaking publicly because she is expecting a the decision on his application state disability pension while remaining on the kidney transplant waiting list.
“I just feel like they have no compassion, they have no compassion,” Williams said.
“Honestly, if you stop his work, you stop his life, so to speak,” Harris added.
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