Through a new dashboard on employer labor violations, the New York City Comptroller’s Office called out the city’s worst workers’ rights offenders through an inaugural “wall of shame.” Eleven companies were listed, including fast food chains Chipotle and Panda Express, rideshare services Uber and Lyft, and e-commerce giant Amazon.
Beyond massive corporations, Comptroller Brad Lander also pointed to a litany of local home healthcare companies on the blacklist as some of the worst wage-theft offenders, a crucial issue given the impact to a workforce composed primarily of Black and Brown women.
“The Wall of Shame is built on this broader employer violations dashboard, which is in different categories,” Lander said in a phone interview with the AmNews. “We look at companies that steal their workers’ wages through wage theft. We look at companies who put their workers’ lives at risk as measured by OSHA violations. We look at companies who commit unfair labor practices and violate their workers’ rights to organize, as determined by the National Labor Relations Board. We look at companies who don’t pay workers the prevailing wages they’re owed on city projects.
“What the wall of shame really is is the companies that were the worst in the different categories on the dashboard,” he added. “For example, Chipotle Mexican Grill, had the highest number of unfair labor practices [ULP] in New York City in 2023, and each company on the list was unfortunately top of one of those categories — and in some cases, they actually had violations across multiple categories.”
Chipotle earned a spot on Lander’s “wall of shame” for the highest number of unfair labor practices in the city with seven violations largely involving coercion and retaliation in response to union-organizing. In fact, the burrito bowl behemoth owed more than $350,000 to more than 9,000 employees when accounting for all violations recorded in the dashboard.
Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft paid out a combined $328 million, the biggest wage and hour settlement in the Office of New York State Attorney General prosecutorial history, after both companies allegedly deducted earnings from their drivers. Amazon faces the most amount of open ULP charges in the city. And Panda Express paid out $3.45 million in the largest Fair Work Week and Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law settlement in the Big Apple last year.
Luxury brand Gucci also made the “wall of shame” due to a settlement with the NYC Commission on Human Rights (NYCCHR) over allegations that two store employees sexually harassed a colleague over a five year span, which the company was allegedly aware of. The $300,000 payout is one of the largest in NYCCHR history.
Lander stressed the fact that employers documented in the dashboard makeup just a small minority of the businesses operating in New York City. But he encouraged the public to dive into the database, which he hopes will serve as a resource to job-seekers, consumers, and even the offending companies themselves. Currently, the dashboard tracks labor law violations from 2020 to 2023 that have been investigated by government agencies.
The “wall of shame” is partially inspired by other blacklists like the worst landlords watchlist started by the Village Voice and now carried on by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The shaming tool led to direct accountability with city’s “worst” landlord Daniel Ohebshalom, who was court ordered to repair his units and subsequently held on Rikers Island after failing to. Initially, the slumlord listed his properties under proxy Jonathan Santana.
“By tracking these types of violations, we can better protect workplace safety, prevent wage theft, and ensure fair treatment, respect, and the protected right to organize for all workers,” said New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Vincent Alvarez in his statement.
Neither Chipotle, Amazon, Uber, Lyft, Panda Express, or Gucci responded by press time.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.