On May Day, Comptroller Lander Touts Accomplishments of Office’s First Workers’ Rights Team

New York, NY — In honor of May Day, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is recognizing the work of the Office’s first-ever Workers’ Rights team. Under the Direction of Claudia Henriquez as part of the Comptroller Office’s Bureau of Labor Law, Comptroller Lander created the Workers’ Rights team at the start of his term to provide outreach and direct support to workers impacted by prevailing wage laws and claims.

“The Bureau of Labor Law has a critical role in the Comptroller’s Office – enforcing the City’s prevailing wage laws to ensure workers employed on City-contracted jobs are compensated fairly,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “We learned early on that the Comptroller’s office could play a significant role in furthering labor protections in New York City, precisely why we created this team. Their work over the past three years to support and defend workers’ rights speaks volumes to their dedication to ensure that workers in New York City receive the wages they have rightfully earned and are treated fairly in the workplace.”

“Since Day 1, my priority has been to expand the office’s impact on labor rights in New York City,” said Claudia Henriquez, Director of Workers Rights. “Workers across industries already look to the Comptroller’s Office to enforce prevailing wage laws and I’m extremely proud of what our team has accomplished to strengthen not only our enforcement, but our outreach, education, and labor policy initiatives.”

Earlier this year the Comptroller’s Office celebrated hitting $9 million in back wages and penalties secured for workers since Comptroller Lander took office. Since then, the Bureau of Labor Law has recovered another $1 million, surpassing $10 million during Comptroller Lander’s administration.

Last year, the Workers’ Rights Team created and launched the Employer Violations Dashboard, the first-ever transparency and accountability tool to track and analyze workplace violations in New York City across federal, state, and city government enforcement agencies. This includes violations on a wide range of issues, including wage theft, workplace safety, unfair labor practices, and more. The tool tracks top offenders among these different categories of violations through charts, provides users with the ability to search for data on a specific employer, and profiles some of the biggest offenders via the “Employer Wall of Shame.” The team has also led trainings on how to use the Dashboard for numerous unions, community-based organizations, and staff of elected officials.

This coincides with the Workers’ Rights team’s efforts to reach workers and employers directly. The Office has hosted three bi-annual Workers’ Rights Convenings, bringing together advocates from government, labor organizations, worker centers, the media, and academia to discuss topics related to increasing and improving worker protections.

They released a report highlighting the need for stronger protections for outdoor workers in the face of growing risks from climate change and produced the Office’s first Immigrant Workers Resource Guide translated into more than just the 10 City-mandated languages.

The Office also re-launched the Prevailing Wage Council, a gathering of labor leaders, government agencies, and industry representatives that discuss developments in prevailing wage enforcement. The Office also simplified the process for workers to file prevailing wage complaints through an online portal and expanded its prevailing wage outreach and know-your-rights trainings with new, accessible informational materials in all 10 mandated languages.

And under Comptroller Lander’s leadership, the Workers’ Rights team began providing policy support for legislative initiatives, such as raising the minimum wage, protections against unfair firing, fair pay and protections for independent contractors and food delivery workers, and ending forced arbitration.

All of this is in addition to the everyday work the Bureau of Labor Law does to enforce prevailing wage laws in New York City, as mandated under state and local law. The New York City Comptroller’s Office sets and enforces prevailing wage and benefit rates for workers, laborers and mechanics employed on New York City public works projects; for building service employees on City contracts and certain properties that receive tax exemptions; and certain other industries such as City-contracted temporary services and food services.

Because of recent and past settlements, approximately 1,600 workers are owed a total of $4.27 million that has not yet been collected. You can view a complete list of the workers entitled to unclaimed prevailing wages at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/unclaimed-wages.

Workers who were employed on City-funded worksites like public schools, subway stations, City streets and parks, and believe that our office has collected unpaid prevailing wages from their employers should call the Comptroller’s hotline at (212) 669-4443 or send inquiries via email to laborlaw@comptroller.nyc.gov.

If you have worked on a prevailing wage project and believe your employer has violated the law, you can file a complaint with the Comptroller’s Office at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/workers-rights/file-a-complaint/.

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