“911, what’s the emergen … Zzzzzzzzzz.”
Sleep-deprived city 911 operators are collapsing from extreme exhaustion after being forced to work consecutive 16-hour shifts for days on end, a stunning new Brooklyn federal lawsuit claims.
In the latest blow to the city’s beleaguered emergency response system, the class action suit against the city claims that emergency operators are subjected to “appalling” work conditions that directly threaten the lives of New Yorkers who depend on the service in times of crisis.
“Plaintiffs work in a demanding, high stress environment where every call counts and can be the difference, literally, between life and death,” the suit states. “This schedule threatens not only the health of individual operators but all those who depend on the city’s emergency response system.”
The lawsuit claims that workers are forced to work the double shifts or are threatened with having their precious vacation time taken away from them.
In one instance cited in the suit, an armed supervisor made that clear to a group of staggered workers who had just completed four consecutive days of double shifts.
“If you don’t return to your positions by the time I count to five I am going to take three days away from each of you,” said NYPD Capt. Donald Church of the department’s Communications Section, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs also claim that fatigued operators are expected to return to work for fresh shifts just hours after completing their prior tours.
Operators frequently complete a double shift at 3 p.m. and are expected to get back on the phones for a new tour beginning at 11 p.m. the same day, the suit claims.
Several “operators have collapsed from exhaustion while dispatching calls and were removed from the Metrotech Center by paramedics,” the suit states.
One of the named plaintiffs, Andrea Holly, was rushed from the call center by paramedics on Sept. 21, the suit states.
“The mandatory non-stop double shifts imposed by the municipal defendants on plaintiffs are causing illness and fatigue in addition to the high stress job of being an operator,” according to the suit.
The case also claims discrimination because the 91 supervisors are almost all white and the roughly 1,300 operators are mostly Hispanic or black.
Employees said that they are routinely retaliated against for taking family leave time and are derided for not being “team players” if they take sick leave, papers state.
Supervisors also tamper with employee schedules by hiding time sheets and preventing them from signing in and out, according to the suit.
There is no respite from the brutal schedule as woozy 911 operators are even expected to take frantic emergency calls during their lunch and dinner breaks, the suit claims.
In addition to Church, Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and NYPD Deputy Inspector Richard Napolitano are named as defendants as well as other NYPD supervisors and the NYPD’s chief surgeon, David Lichtenstein.
The city’s 911 system has already been under attack after major glitches with a new $88 million computer forced workers to record information from callers on pieces of paper.
Operators are paid a starting salary of $26,000 but make more in overtime.
“Don’t get me wrong. I love my job,” one operator told The Post in July. “I’m here to serve people and do my best. But the conditions are inhumane. We’re burned out.”