Thomas Tracy – New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The CrowdStrike computer program outage that crippled private businesses and municipal governments across the globe on Friday has left dozens of 9/11 retired first responders without their workers’ compensation checks, union officials said Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, workers’ compensation payments for EMS members that were supposed to be directly deposited have still not gone through, leaving the first responders without a much-needed financial boost that can range from $700 to $900, said Gary Smiley, a former city paramedic and World Trade Center liaison for Local 2507, the city’s EMS union.
“A lot of these people live paycheck to paycheck,” Smiley said. “They can’t work because they’re not allowed to work. This is their money. What are you supposed to tell these people?”
The city has assured Smiley that the payments will be sent out soon, but so far, none of his members has received anything, he said.
The comptroller’s office has been fielding scores of phone calls about the Workman’s Compensation Division’s failure to make the payments, Smiley was told.
An email to the Workman’s Compensation Division, the comptroller’s office and the city Law Department were not immediately returned.
The division receives about 17,500 new claims a year from employees injured on the job, according to its website.
While the CrowdStrike breakdown grounded flights, disrupted businesses and knocked banks offline around the world Friday, emergency services were not affected but some city offices did suffer disruptions, officials said.
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