Wizzle Wassell:
Not one person said talking about safety was like beating a dead horse in fact most have agreed with the point you’ve made about delivery points.
They are talking about your uncanny ability to turn everything into a minimum wage issue.
Safety frequently IS an issue in minimum and sub-minimum wage jobs. Low paid workers are very frequently taken advantage of and expected to work in the most dangerous conditions. Workers who complain are told to shut up and stop complaining, and are threatened with termination if they continue or threaten to report the problems to authorities. They very fact that I am being chastised here by the owners and managers in the very same industry I comment about just lends credence to the notion that anyone speaking up about workplace safety and pay is not welcome and will be dealt with by intimidation and threats instead of addressing and correcting the issues.
I read news articles and lawsuits nearly every day that affirm this happens across the country. Here is a recent article that shows that I am not alone in my assertions:
Posted by
GetLegal.com on February 15, 2010
By Brandon Sipherd
Adriatic Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria, a 20-year midtown establishment, is being sued for violating federal and state labor laws. Adriatic has been accused of underpaying its delivery workers in violation of wage and hour laws.
Restaurant delivery people are some of the lowest-paid workers in New York City and oftentimes they are forced to work in deplorable working conditions. Some delivery workers work 70-hour weeks for only $10 or $15 per shift including tips and others must pay up front for each meal that is delivered.
These delivery workers are typically subject to abuse, crime and physical danger. In 2005, a Chinese deliveryman in Queens was robbed and murdered by a couple of teenagers. Then in 2008, the owners of Saigon Grill in Manhattan had to pay $4.6 million in back pay for its violations of wage and hour laws.
Now city and state officials, government agencies and a restaurant industry trade group are trying to protect this especially vulnerable group of employees. Unfortunately, many of these employees are undocumented immigrants who do not complain for fear of losing their jobs or even greater disciplinary action, such as deportation.
Over the past eight months in Brooklyn, the District Attorney’s office has prosecuted nine cases of delivery workers who have been attacked. To further discourage violent crimes against delivery workers, the District Attorney’s office is considering increasing jail time for these types of crimes.
However, even more widespread than the threat of violence, delivery employees constantly face a threat to their livelihood as employers continue to underpay them. It is commonplace for employers in the restaurant industry to pay employees a shift pay, which is generally well below the legal minimum hourly wage.
In November, the New York State Department of Labor,
in a random sweep of 25 restaurants in Park Slope, Brooklyn, found that only two employers were not violating wage and hour laws. It also found that 207 workers were underpaid by almost $1 million in total. Most delivery workers surveyed were found to work around 70 hours per week while only receiving a weekly salary ranging from $210 to $275. Hopefully, local and state officials will be successful in their efforts to enforce current wage and hour laws among the restaurant industry in New York City.
I am not accusing ANYONE here of doing any of this, but this and many other things I have read say that these kinds of violations are COMMON in the industry and that is why I speak out on these issues. The board admins have given me permission to continue posting here as long as I do it respectfully and I certainly believe I have been doing just that. I would hope that you who disagree with me could say your piece respectfully as well and leave it at that. But frankly I believe that the above posts are telling me to ‘shut up’ and stop complaining and I don’t take that lightly at all coming from the very people who are in the same position to tell their own workers the same thing if they ever speak up about safety or labor violations at work.
I firmly believe that I contribute very useful information to this community and also offer a unique informed perspective to what is posted here. If you disagree with my points of view, then by all means state why and explain your case. But if you simply don’t like my presence here I suggest that you bring it up with the admins and keep your insults to yourselves.
