Concern over day laborer safety and services led to a report that Councilman Vincent Gentile has called "inadequate."
From Queens Tribune Local Page:
The main sponsor of a bill that created the Temporary Commission on Day Laborer Job Centers says the newly issued report from the commission is “inadequate.”
“I requested this report as a way to address quality-of-life issues arising from day laborers congregating in residential neighborhoods,” said Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn). “I wanted a thoroughly researched recommendation on how to address these issues while at the same time protecting laborers’ compensation when they put in a full day’s work.
“Instead, after nearly four years, all I’m presented with is a few paragraphs of anecdotal evidence, a summary of information we already had on hand, and conclusions that have already been considered,” he added. “While the obstacles day laborers face shouldn’t be ignored, the report the commission has produced is inadequate. It ignores the issues that prompted me to request it and ignores the concerns of many city residents,” Gentile told the Queens Tribune.
The Commission that released the six-page report (plus two pages of appendixes) was created by the 2005 Local Law 91, which stated that half of the members – all of whom volunteered their time – be appointed by the Mayor and the remainder by the Speaker of the City Council.
The chairman of the committee was Commissioner Guillermo Linares of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, who responded to the criticism by highlighting the expertise of the commission’s members.
“The Commission, made up of immigration advocates, day laborers, city agencies, religious organizations and academic experts on the impact and history of day laborers in New York, believe the recommendations they have set forth represent a significant first step in addressing the needs of low-wage immigrant workers as well as the needs of the communities in which they seek employment,” said Linares. “We look forward to working with the City Council to implement the Commission’s recommendations.”
Evelyn Erskine, the deputy press secretary for the mayor, said the committee took a hiatus of one year because a number of its members were appointed to a scaffold safety task force which was commissioned in mid-2006 and whose recommendations have already been implemented in legislation.
The committee did meet for two full years on a weekly basis, with some of the meetings lasting “as long as three hours,” according to Oscar Paredes, the Director of the Latin American Workers Project and a committee member.
“The focus now is on finding a funding stream to implement these recommendations,” said Erskine. “They’ve never been on paper before. They’ve never been out there as something that needed priority and now they are there to be implemented.”
Henry Stern, a former Parks Commissioner and City Councilman, who is currently the president of NY Civic, a government watchdog group, called the report “a step forward, but the question is whether they implement it. It is better that they issued it than that they didn’t, but for now, you can regard this report as more of a blessing.”
“It’s late April in an election year, so this is what you get,” said Stern, “But at least it raises consciousness with regards to day laborers which was never brought forward before.”
A brief summary of the Commission’s recommendations:
- City government should encourage and assist the development of appropriately located and configured community facilities where low-wage immigrant workers, including day laborers, can receive the critically needed job-related programs and services outlined in these recommendations.
- City government should foster the development of critical safety and related programs that serve day laborers.
- City government should evaluate and support critical programs and services that serve day laborers.
- City government should encourage collaboration and cooperation among community groups, including those that serve the day laborer population, and public entities that may include OSHA, the State Department of Labor, NYPD, or other appropriate agencies.
