March 29, 2007
Helmets for Delivery Guys, Lawsuits for Restaurants
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed a City Council bill that requires businesses with bicycle delivery workers to improve its bicycle safety measures into law. Read all about bill 24-A, which requires businesses to supply helmets, to make sure the delivery guys wear them, and to make sure the bikes are safe, as well as 58-A, which requires signs about bicycle safety and laws to posted in English, Spanish or whichever language is spoken at the business, here. City Councilman Alan Gerson initiated the bill in the fall of 2004 (why it took so long is unclear) and Mayor Bloomberg said about the legislation:
In addition to enhancing the safety of pedestrians traversing the City’s streets, these bills will help protect our City’s hard-working delivery personnel, many of whom are immigrants who speak a language other than English. Immigrants form the backbone of our City’s workforce and have helped re-energize our economy, and this bill will ensure that they are given additional protection.Both the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Latino Restaurant Association support stronger bicycle safety measures.
And on the other side, another restaurant is being targeted for paying its employees sub-minimum wages. Per Eater, advocacy group Justice Will Be Served and a law firm filed a lawsuit against the Lincoln Center Ollie's on behalf of delivery workers. Much like the lawsuit filed against the Saigon Grill chain, the lawsuit alleges a number of labor violations, including paying workers as little as $1.40/hour. Justice Will Be Served says more lawsuits will be coming in the next few months "from Chinatown to midtown and uptown Manhattan restaurants."
Photograph by billadler on Flickr
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Just keep them from riding on the sidewalk!
how about protection FROM delivery persons who don't understand that crowded sidewalks are NOT where bicycles go.
Also, require the restaurants to install baskets on their delivery bikes (preferably over the rear wheel). Bags of Kung Pao chicken swinging from the handlebars cannot be safe.
Yay! Higher prices.
@Ared - you think spending an extra dollar (which probably wouldn't even by the case anyway) would be horrible if it meant the guy delivering it could actually have a decent income. I wish you made $1.40 an hour for a few weeks and see how you love it.
I support the delivery guys safety..that being said I don't ever tip more than $2! I think that's a decent tip on a 10-12 dollar delivery though right?
How about teaching them not to ride the wrong direction down a one-way street? However, that sort of behavior isn't limited to only delivery guys...
i always tip a minimum of $5 or least 20%. i figuring driving down streets in inclement is about as tough as being a waiter. that said, when I waited tables, i made less than minimum wage from my employer. it's all about the tips putting you over the amount. I'd hope a delivery guy got at least $10-15 an hour in tips if not more.
Daniel, I don't see where the post says anything about wages. I do see where it says storeowners are going to be required to become the mothers of their employees, requiring them to wear their helmets before going out to play. I just don't see a role for government in this matter.
Daniel, are you saying it's wrong to oppose minumum wages, but OK to tip $2 for a $40 delivery?
Dave, you were lucky that your employer even paid you a regular salary in addition to tips. Some restaurant don't pay wages and just have wait staff live off on the tips they received. In NYS minimum wage for waitstaff is $4.60/hr and NOT $7.15/hr.
www.labor.state.ny.us/workerprotection/laborstandards/faq.shtm
how bout a bill that makes it illegal to drive like an A-HOLE?
There's a clause in the bill that permits pedestrians to knock those f-in chinks down if they ride on the sidewalk!
all those mexican delivery guys steal bicycles! They are all taped and stolen!!!! they go visit people to deliver food and then when they see a bike they tell their friends to come by and steal them! I had my bike stolen a month ago and then walked by a delivery place and there it was! I had my serial number, filed a police report and asked police to come retrieve it but since the bike's serial number was filed off and the bike was taped they said they couldn't take the bike even though I had a hidden piece of paper with identification in the handlebar that they found. POLICE are damn worthless! I just yelled at the delivery people that if they didn't give me my bike back they'd get their asses deported and they gave me my bike back. If you ever get your bike stolen it's definitely by mexican delivery people. Just check the local delivery places. They broke 150 dollars worth of locks to steal a 300 dollar bicycle!!! Insane!!!
what kind of people can take a job for $1.60 an hour in this city and stay on that job for more than a couple of days before dying from exposure (because they can't pay rent) and/or starvation (because they can't afford to eat) ??? Seriously. $1.60 an hour? That's about $13 for a day's work. It's not that I don't believe that people won't TAKE such an absurd wage, but what business could AFFORD to pay such a shitty wage and also expect to keep an employee for longer than 2 days?
Yet another "law" that will rarely, if ever, be enforced (but, hey, it keeps our politicos busy and makes it appear like they... care). File alongside laws concerning: using cellphones while driving, rolling through red lights, double-parking and excessive motorcycle exhaust pipe noise - to name a few that made the books, and are rarely cited.
Wow, I knew they weren't being payed in the first place but thats just sad . Also they should be wearing helmets it's just sad that the city has to tell their bosses to make them wear them .
#[12] Lol, I've doing that for years now !!!! I didn't need the city to add any provisions to give me the right to knock the shit out of these delivery guys riding on the sidewalk . Hell just last week I had a run in with one of them on [51] St. He was speeding down the block passed a cop swerved and almost hit me . I simply sung my briefcase at his head and that was the end of it . The cop asked me why . I said he was suppose to be out in the street, I hit him out of self defense . That guy will think twice the next time he rides on the sidewalk again !
[12] and [17] -- you tough guys are truly my heroes and exemplify all that is good about New York. Harrassing delivery people is picking low lying fruit -- what's next?? I hear there are a lot of strollers with infants on the Upper West Side and Park Slope clogging up the sidewalks -- will you be kicking them over??
We don't pick on the poor delivery folks . We just want to be able too walk down the street without fear of being run over by some nut (That in most cases can even read the address he's delivering the food too)speeding down the block all in the name of getting people like you your damn food !
No #[18] I don't harass mothers with there kids in tow . Although, I really hate seeing them [2]or [3] at a time on the damn bus block the middle so you have too squeeze around them too get to the back .