About half of the employment agencies licensed in New York City have used illegal or deceptive practices, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in an announcement on Wednesday. In the most egregious cases, agencies have systematically swindled the city’s most vulnerable job seekers, the mayor said. þþAfter an 18-month investigation, which included a review of the more than 330 licensed agencies in the city and undercover inspections by agents with video cameras, the Department of Consumer Affairs shut down three companies, collected $160,000 in fines and delivered $80,000 in restitution to clients. Many of the clients were immigrants looking for restaurant, domestic and manual-labor jobs as a “first foothold in the work force,” the mayor said. þþThe most common violations included requiring non-English speakers to sign contracts in English, demanding illegal upfront payments and withholding refunds from clients who did not receive jobs. þþThe agencies have long acted with impunity, Mr. Bloomberg said, because many of the victims were unaware of their rights or were illegal immigrants afraid to report violations, even though city policy guarantees that people who step forward will not be asked about their status or reported to immigration authorities.þþ“We simply aren’t going to stand for this kind of conduct,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at York College in Jamaica, Queens. þþ“Protecting workers with low incomes is a key part of our fight against poverty,” he said, adding that it was essential to ensure that “New York is a city of opportunity,” especially as the economic downturn made it harder to find work.þþJonathan Mintz, the city’s consumer affairs commissioner, said the violations ranged from honest mistakes by agencies that were unfamiliar with the rules to systematic bilking of clients. The city has reached settlements with 159 agencies and is continuing undercover investigations to make sure they abide by the rules. Of the remaining agencies, some have not responded to the city’s inquiries, and others are still being reviewed. þþOne Brooklyn agency, Dalia, has been caught violating its settlement agreement on a video recording by an undercover investigator posing as a new immigrant from Colombia.þþThe video shows the woman speaking in Spanish with the agency owner and the employees. She is asked to pay $40 and then is given a contract in English. When she asks them to tell her in Spanish what it says, an agency worker laughs and tells her, “It’s nothing bad.” þþ“If you trust us, we trust in you,” the worker says. “Everybody wants to win.” þþThe city is now seeking the revocation of the agency’s license. þþMany agencies charge job seekers a fee up front, then ask them to come back the next day, Mr. Mintz said. Then they tell the job seeker that no job has materialized and refuse to pay the money back.þþ“Forty dollars when you can’t put a meal on the table is a lot of money,” Mr. Bloomberg said.þþMr. Mintz said job seekers should familiarize themselves with the rules, which are posted on the department’s Web site in English, Spanish, Russian, Hindi, Haitian Creole, Chinese, Bengali and Korean. First, they should call 311 or check online to make sure the agency is licensed. And they should keep receipts and insist on seeing a contract in their own language, he said. þþAgencies may charge fees in advance only for certain types of work, including domestic, household, agricultural, skilled industrial and mechanic jobs, and that money should be applied toward the placement fees that the client pays after getting a job. Placement fees cannot exceed the maximum allowed by law, which varies depending on the type of job and salary. þþAgencies also may not refer job seekers to jobs that pay less than minimum wage or do not pay overtime.þþ
Source: NY Times
