MASPETH, Queens (WABC) — New York City workers were the focus for Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday, from making sure companies give paid time off to encouraging Amazon workers to unionize.
Mayor Mamdani believes that many employers are leaving their workers in the dark, and are unaware that they are legally entitled to certain time off.
On Friday morning, he met with delivery workers in a restaurant in Maspeth, Queens to spread the word about a new state law that takes effect this weekend.
“It ensures that every worker in New York City gets 32 hours of unpaid leave from the beginning of the year and the beginning of their job, because far too often being forced to accrue that over the course of the year means you are forced into impossible decisions,” Mamdani said.
Councilmember Sandy Nurse sponsored the law in the City Council.
“Life happens. Things come up. The sitter calls out, your mom’s sick. Your kid’s sick, your dog’s sick,” Nurse said. “All things can happen at once, and you need to use the time off. And you shouldn’t have to face retaliation for that. You should be able to go handle your business, take care of people who depend on you and keep your job.”
Workers told the mayor that they often struggle with painful choices.
“The mother of my children is currently dealing with brain cancer,” said one delivery worker. “It would help if I did have a little bit of extra time at the job where I didn’t have to feel a little bit guilty, as if I could possibly lose my job by trying not to lose a life in my family.”
Employees have long been entitled to paid sick time. Mamdani told workers at the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection will begin a series of compliance checks because, according to the CDC, half of private sector workers don’t take any sick time.
“When you look at an employer and you see no use of paid time off from its workforce, you’re looking at a workforce that has been told in either explicit or implicit terms that there will be repercussions if they are to use that time,” Mamdani said. “That’s a red flag. And that’s where DCWP will then come in, investigate and see whether that’s the case, because we have too many workers who are fearful of using the time that they’ve been allocated.”
The new law applies to 32 hours of what’s called “protected time off,” which, as the mayor pointed out, is unpaid.
That new law takes effect on Sunday.
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