Gov. Andrew Cuomo on July 16 announced what he calls a “first-of-its-kind,” statewide task force to “root out” worker-exploitation issues in several industries in New York.
Cuomo announced the task force while in the Bronx signing legislation to protect and support nail-salon workers in New York.
The legislation helps protect nail-salon employees from “unsafe working conditions and unfair labor practices.”
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Cuomo wants the multi-agency task force to help in New York’s fight against worker exploitation and builds on his initiative helping workers in nail salons.
The group will “identify and halt” illegal practices in more industries across the state, Cuomo’s office said in a news release issued the same day.
The task force includes 10 state agencies, such as the New York State Department of State, the state Department of Labor, and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.
“If there is a state that is going to take a stand against worker exploitation, it is New York,” Cuomo said in prepared remarks at the July 16 event. “New York offers a promise that our arms and hearts are open to those who come here to work and build a better future for themselves — and we will not tolerate worker exploitation, period.”
The task force will work in partnership with an advisory committee that is charged with providing legislative, regulatory, and administrative recommendations.
The advisory committee will meet monthly.
The committee will provide its first set of recommendations by December of this year for consideration during next year’s legislative session.
The committee members include Danny Wegman, CEO of Wegmans, and Esta Bigler, director of labor and employment-law programs at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Objectives
The task force will start by addressing issues discovered through worker complaints made directly to the state and referrals from advocacy organizations, Cuomo’s office said.
The issues, through which New York contends workers are “often victimized,” include wage theft, human trafficking, retaliation, “unsafe or unsanitary” working conditions, “unstable or unscheduled” hours, and “illegal” paycheck deductions for supplies, training, or uniforms.
Enforcement efforts will focus on industries with the highest rates of employer non-compliance and where workers are least likely to come forward for “fear of retaliation,” according to Cuomo’s news release.
Specifically, the state selected industries based on geographic or community isolation of the workforce within the industry, danger of the occupation based on reported death rates, statewide investigator experiences, prevalence of off-the-books employment by industry, and statistics on the percentage of the immigrant workforce in each industry.
Initial target areas include workplaces such as nail salons, farms, childcare centers, cleaning services, home-health care providers, laundry services providers, restaurants, retailers, construction firms, landscapers, car washes, supermarkets, janitorial services firms, and truck and waste-disposal drivers, according to the news release.
The task force will include representatives from state agencies including the state Labor Department, Department of State, state Health Department, workers’-compensation board, state Taxation and Finance Department, state Agriculture and Markets Department, Office of Children and Family Services, Office of Faith Based Services, Division of Criminal Justice Services, and State Police.
The agencies will have more than 700 investigators, including multilingual investigators who speak languages that include Bengali, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, Haitian Creole, and Korean.
Language-access services will be available in all languages at all agencies.
Anyone with information of suspected worker abuse should contact the task force hotline at (888) 469-7365. Callers can remain anonymous, Cuomo’s office said.
