Labor-Record Letter Grades For Eateries?

The Harp administration is considering borrowing an idea from health ratings to advise the public about restaurants’ treatments of their workers: letter grades posted in front windows.

The letter-grade idea, still in its infancy stages, is one of several responses City Hall is considering in the wake of a recent meeting with immigrants-rights protesters angered by an arrest of one of their organizers outside Goodfellas Restaurant. (Read about that here and here).

The grades would reflect not just violations, but positive steps employers take, like paying employees well.

Other ideas include requiring businesses to close until they pay wages they’ve stolen from employees who successfully appeal to state or federal authorities.

Administration officials broached the ideas at a recent workshop held in City Hall by the Board of Alders Human Services Committee.

The workshop on wage theft has been two years in the making, originating from a resolution introduced by former Fair Haven Alder Migdalia Castro (pictured), who is now the city’s director of elderly services.

Castro, who testified during the workshop, said the problem of wage theft remains as prevalent in the city as it was two years ago when she asked her then colleagues on the Board of Alders to consider the topic.

While the focus of wage theft protests has largely been on local restaurants, Castro said that other types of businesses, many of them service oriented, such as nail salons, take advantage of mostly immigrants and women. She said those other businesses should be included in any proposal.

“We’re facing a job crisis in this city,” said the new chair of the committee, Amity/Beverly Hills Alder Richard Furlow (pictured). ​“There are those that don’t have jobs and those who are not getting fair pay. Though this is a state issue, it is our responsibility to advocate on behalf of our constituents and make sure that what is happening in our city is legal.”

Joe Rodriguez, a former Fair Haven alder who now serves as the administration’s legislative liaison, said Mayor Toni Harp is considering the
rating system, which he called similar to those used by public health departments in restaurants in other communities, to signal to customers that a particular business follows state and federal wage laws. He said the Harp administration is planning to discuss the idea with the business community and activist groups like Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA).

“The administration takes this quite seriously,” Rodriguez said of wage theft. As a New Haven resident and a Latino, Rodriguez said, he also takes finding a solution to the problem personally because many wage theft victims are in fact Latino.

Police Chief Dean Esserman said that the department realizes that it is not enough to say that wage theft is a state labor matter. He said he has assigned a detective to investigate wage theft claims and work with the state Labor Department. Last year ULA and the police department worked together to establish a protocol when it came to wage theft claims where the department would send a ​“cease and desist” notice to businesses.

Joseph Foran (pictured at left in photo) of ULA told the committee that his group was disappointed to see Esserman cross the Goodfellas picket line to patronize the restaurant which has previously been made to pay thousands of dollars in claims to workers for unpaid over time.

Foran said ULA believes enforcement, not legislation, is key to addressing wage theft. ​“It such a widespread, prevalent problem that the Department of Labor seems to be at a loss because of the sheer quantity and severity of the issue,” he said.

Foran suggested that the city take away outdoor seating licenses from restaurants that steal wages from workers.
Furlow said that the committee will aim for something far tougher than that.

“Just to be honest, we’re not looking just to eliminate outdoor seating,” he said. ​“We’re looking to get those businesses closed that are not in compliance with wage laws.”

In other business, the committee voted for a resolution supporting a janitor’s bill of rights in support of helping such workers obtain a fair living wage and better working conditions. The resolution was championed by upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, who has pushed for his colleagues in the past to support a domestic workers bill of rights.