Results tagged “workers”

Is another transit strike looming on the horizon? Yesterday over 350 furious transit workers took to the streets outside MTA headquarters in protest, some carrying signs like the one seen here. The employees are outraged over an ongoing contract dispute with the MTA board, whose decisions are heavily influenced by the Mayor. The MTA is refusing to accept a plan to raise the hourly pay rate by more than 11 percent over three years; the deal was reached through arbitration in August, but now the MTA is asking a judge to toss it out, claiming that the panel "made legal and factual mistakes." The raises would cost the MTA 350 million dollars.

The owner of a popular Thai restaurant in the Financial District underpaid employees by hundreds of thousands of dollars during the past six years, with some working 72 hours a week for less than minimum wage, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The A.G. says Lemongrass Grill owner Hann Low paid delivery workers as little as $2.08 per hour, and some kitchen workers made as little as $4.23 per hour (below minimum wage). Delivery workers say they were compensated just $25 a day for 10 to 12 hour shifts at Low's restaurant at 84 William Street; Cuomo's suit demands $962,000 in restitution and damages. An investigation is continuing into Low's second Lemongrass location on the Upper West Side—Low’s ex-wife owns the third Lemongrass Grill in Park Slope, and it's unclear whether that location is also under investigation. Cuomo's lawsuit is just the latest in an ongoing crackdown on restaurateurs underpaying workers; in March state labor officials recovered $2.3 million in back wages for more than 800 workers at nine restaurants, including the Ollie's noodle shop mini-chain, and the 21 Club is being sued by employees for withholding part of their tips.

Three workers at a private recycling facility in Jamaica, Queens died while trapped in a sewage hole earlier this afternoon. According to NY1, "The men were subcontractors pumping three to four feet of water out of the hole, which was about 18-feet deep. One worker fell into the hole and the two others fell in while trying to help him." And CityRoom reports that two of the workers were a father and a son. The hole was full of hydrogen sulfide and fire officials said there was twice the lethal amount of the colorless gas, which the CDC says "can also result from bacterial breakdown of organic matter. It is also produced by human and animal wastes." Queens Borough Commander John Sudnik said, "It's toxic. At 50 parts per million, it's lethal in 10 minutes." Initially, the FDNY had called Con Ed to bring vacuum trucks, which helps suck debris from manholes, to Regal Recycling Co. but then cancelled the request because the victims were dead.

A freaky flash fire in a mechanical room of a building on the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital campus left a maintenance worker with burns over 70 percent of his body this morning. A little before 10 a.m. workers were cleaning a domestic hot water tank in a 22nd-floor room, when, suddenly, there was "a little bit of an explosion and a flash fire," according to an FDNY spokesman. City Room reports that vapors from the cleaning solution were ignited after someone turned on a halogen lamp inside the drained tank. Accidents are not uncommon with halogen bulbs, which can reach temperatures as high as 1000 degrees and easily ignite any combustible material nearby. While they are more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs, some have called for them to be banned; two years ago a rash of fires in Australia prompted one firefighter to call halogens "a bloody nightmare." All three workers injured in today's blaze were rushed to Harlem Hospital. One worker injured his arms and hands when he tried to pull the first man out of the tank, and the third suffered respiratory injuries.

The state Labor Department's really on a roll with these bad boss busts! In recent weeks they've won big payouts in back wages from the owners of Amish Market and Ollie's Noodle Shop, and now they've brought the hammer down on a Bronx baker.

550 workers who were illegally denied overtime at nine Amish Market gourmet groceries will divvy up nearly $1.5 million as part of a settlement with the state Department of Labor. At a press conference yesterday, Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith detailed the investigation of Amish Market and its related stores: Zeytinia, Zeytinz and Zeytuna. Acting on a tip from union officials, investigators conducted a simultaneous sweep of nine locations throughout the state in June 2007, arriving at the same time to prevent managers from coaching employees or destroying records. The investigation determined that many workers were clocking 45 to 60 hours a week but were not paid time and a half, while new hires often received subminimum wages during a so-called "trial period." Commissioner Smith told reporters, "It’s unfathomable to think that in this day and age—in these frightening economic times—an employer would actually believe it could get away with cheating workers out such an exorbitant amount of their hard earned money."

An overflow crowd packed an auditorium at Yeshiva University Tuesday night to debate whether it's acceptable to call something "kosher certified" if it's produced under unethical conditions. The panel discussion was prompted in part by the high profile prosecution of the Rubashkin family, who operate a major kosher-meat-processing plant in Iowa. Federal agents raided the plant in May, arresting 389 illegal immigrants, who, according to this damning cover story in the Village Voice, were paid some of the lowest wages in the nation, and were allegedly forced to work up to 17-hour days with 10-minute lunch breaks "in a freezing-cold, dirty hallway."

After a multi-year investigation, attorney general Andrew Cuomo has announced a $750,000 settlement for wage violations by a company that owns supermarkets in Chinatown, Elmhurst and Flushing. According to City Room, employees at the three stores worked 13 or 14 hours a day, seven days a week, totaling 90 hours a week in some cases. But most of them were paid just $360 a week, about the equivalent of $4 an hour. (The labor department says they should have made $714 a week at those hours.) In a statement, Cuomo said, "Employers who line their pockets instead of paying workers the wages and overtime they’ve earned will be brought to justice by my office." The Times tried to get a comment from Long Deng, the owner, but he's in China (hopefully not sourcing more labor). And Deng is not to be confused with the supermarket executives arrested in October for paying their grocery baggers with the tip change shoppers (sometimes) leave at the checkout.

City Councilmen Eric Gioia of Queens and Simcha Felder of Brooklyn will introduce a bill next week that would prohibit the city from buying bottled water and water coolers for workers at city agencies, the Daily News reports. At a press conference yesterday, the two councilmen said taxpayers could save $2 million a year by having municipal offices switch to systems that filter tap water. Felder himself installed a $400 heating and cooling water filter in his office this year, and he told reporters, "It is hypocritical for the city to buy bottled water while urging New Yorkers to drink tap." In addition to saving money, the bill would lessen the city's carbon footprint and waste, without sacrificing taste. Over the summer, NYC placed second in a regional tap-water tasting contest, bested only by Bethpage on Long Island.

It seemed like Gov. Paterson had managed to cobble together a deal for the State to take over NYC OTB yesterday afternoon and prevent its closing. A state takeover would require a vote by the legislature Monday, but Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno both seemed amenable to the idea. Mayor Bloomber, however, is holding fast on his insistence that he is going to close all of the city's OTB parlors tomorrow.

Curbed is reporting on the latest victim of luxury condos: Myrtle the Turtle. Who's behind the act of animal cruelty? All fingers are pointing to the construction workers, who have the same shade of red paint on site at 5 Roebling Street. A neighbor, and friend of Myrtle the Turtle, wrote in:

It is obviously intentional because she got such a sustained spray that it has drip marks. The face and feet, as well. It is the exact color that the excavation people use on the 5 Roebling site to mark elevations on walls adjoining, so they know how deep to dig…

Colors, the feel-good restaurant on Lafayette Street owned and operated by Windows on the World employees who were spared on 9/11, is reportedly back from the brink of ruin. The fine dining restaurant opened two years ago as one of New York’s few cooperative restaurants, with everyone from busboys to chefs sharing ownership and a menu featuring international cuisine created by the multi-ethnic staff.