Community Watch Program For NY Labor

When it comes to unfair labor practices, there are plenty that go in this state. However, the Department of Labor can only do so much to combat it with budgets being axed and too many businesses to investigate. On the other end, it is hard for workers to take on their employers alone, with victories at Saigon Grill too far and few in between. So the Department of Labor is going to try something new, combining the best of both worlds.

From The NYT Cityroom:

In an announcement, the state labor commissioner, M. Patricia Smith, called the program, the New York Wage Watch, a “one-of-a-kind grass-roots tool in the fight against illegal labor practices.”

The six-month pilot will begin with six participants: the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, which will focus on Chinatown, Flushing and parts of Long Island; Make the Road New York, which will focus on Bushwick; the Workplace Project, based on Long Island; the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which will look at high-end supermarkets; the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which will focus on retail stores in Lower Manhattan, Bushwick, the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and parts of Queens; and the Centro del Inmigrante, based on Staten Island.

The six groups will conduct know-your-rights training, providing employers with information about compliance and distributing brochures to workers in supermarkets, laundromats, nail salons, day-labor sites and other work areas. They will have a designated contact in the Labor Department’s Division of Labor Standards, which enforces wage and hour laws, to whom they can refer violations or detailed questions from employers.

Critics are quick to jump on this because the groups aren't neutral, in that they look out for the workers more so than just playing fair. However, in these times of rampant corporate welfare and dominance over society, we need a buffer to fight businesses that take advantage of workers and the current situation is not working. Like Ms. Smith mentioned, it is a pilot program and if it doesn't work then we'll try something different. The key is that we have a goal to keep wages fair for every single worker in this state.