Workers in front of Key Food in Riverdale. Courtesy of NYC Consumer and Worker Protection Grocery store workers return to work
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 30 AN. 22-28, 2021 BTR
BY JASON COHEN
A grocery store in Riverdale
showed it did not care about the wellbeing
of its essential employees when
it canned 19 of them during the pandemic.
Well, karma came knocking last
week.
On Jan. 12, the Department of Consumer
and Worker Protection (DCWP)
Commissioner Lorelei Salas announced
a settlement agreement with
Key Food at 5661 Riverdale Avenue to
resolve a lawsuit that DCWP fi led in
September last year for illegally fi ring
workers during COVID-19.
The settlement resolves violations
of the City’s Grocery Worker Retention
Act, which requires new grocery
store owners to keep previous employees
for a 90-day transitional period.
Thirteen workers have already or are
in the process of returning to work as
a result of the settlement, which also
requires the store to pay $90,000 in
lost wages to the 19 workers who were
fi red.
The lawsuit alleged multiple violations
of the city’s Grocery Worker Retention
Act, which requires new grocery
store owners to keep previous
employees for a 90-day transitional
period. DCWP requested $198,240
in lost wages for the 21 workers who
were fi red, which is three times what
they would have made had they been
retained, as well as approximately
$12,069 in lost benefi ts.
“We’re glad we could fi nd a resolution
that not only put the money back
into pockets of essential workers during
these diffi cult economic times but
also get the jobs back for those who
decided to return,” said DCWP Commissioner
Lorelei Salas. “It was just
wrong that the same community heroes
who risked their lives to go to
work while many of us stayed home
were the ones left jobless. We urge all
workers who would like to learn more
about their rights or have any questions
to contact us at nyc.gov/workers
or by calling 311.”
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz
said the fi ring of the workers was appalling.
The lawmaker also told residents
that until those people were
rehired no one should go to the supermarket.
“It was an absolute disgrace,” he
said. “It was a violation. How do you
do that to people?”
He was quite pleased the DCWP
won the lawsuit and has allowed people
to return to their jobs. The assemblyman
spoke with the owners of the
supermarket, yet they never provided
a satisfactory reason as to why they let
people go.
“You want to do business in our
community at least do the right
thing,” he stressed. “It was so offensive
they would do this to hard working
people.”
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