Epstein on enforcement wait times and six-month backlog
Epstein asks about wait times for workers filing complaints, noting six-month backlogs. Levine and Wagoner say the goal is to reduce the backlog to zero with new staffing, though it may take about a year.
Thank you, Commissioner, and thank you all for being here and the time you put into these issues we care so much about.
The preliminary hearing, we talked a lot around the wait time that people had when someone had an hours issue.
It would take them six months before they'd even hear from someone.
The investigations would take potentially a year.
Based on the funding that were being proposed in the executive budget, what would the wait time look like for a regular New Yorker?
Who works at McDonald's and feels like they're not getting their schedules appropriately, and there's concerns around that.
So the wait time for an ordinary New Yorker is going to depend, of course, on how much information we get and whether we detect a work-wide violation.
I think the deeper problem that you're absolutely right,
Right to highlight is what you also said, which is six month backlog of enforcement.
What that means is that folks who had their wages stolen in some cases, the employers who stole them are sitting on that money while workers are being left holding the bag.
Our goal.
And more than our goal, we believe we are now equipped, thanks to the mayor's investment, is to take that six-month backlog and reduce it to zero.
And I want to turn things over to our deputy commissioner to say more about that.
No, that's right.
You know, in the metrics that led to the development of the ultimate number, that is explicitly what we're looking at.
What would it take to bring it down to zero?
And we believe we'll be able to achieve it.