Menin on Delivery Protection Act and fair work week expansion

Thank you.

Hello.

You guys are my favorite agency.

I don't need to couch it, my colleague over there.

You can tell everybody.

Also, thank you for...

I will tell everybody now.

I stand by it, whatever.

Also glad to see that you had Amazon cough up, what, close to 10 million in unpaid tickets.

So I was happy to see that.

Not going to be surprised that I want to ask about the Delivery Protection Act and sort of what that will cost moving forward.

I know that I heard testimony that you feel good about your ability to...

Enforce the many laws that we have already passed, the ones that are coming into effect, but we want to do more.

I think that we share the same ambition in being able to do more.

We also know that there's just so much that we get in return in terms of raising revenue and putting money back in people's pockets.

So, you know, at the hearing on the Delivery Protection Act, you testified that you support the bill.

Do you feel ready to, should it pass, enforce the licensing process and requirements that would come along with that?

Do you, with the numbers that you have, is that enough to...

Enforce that bill, for example, or do you need more?

Well, thank you, Councilmember.

We enthusiastically support the bill.

I mean, just yesterday we were discussing before this hearing a Supreme Court case around a company that tried to force for hire, excuse me, last mile delivery workers into arbitration.

This was in another state, but it just shows the scale of the worker exploitation we see all over the United States.

Your bill would put a stop to that in New York City.

With respect to the lines we would need to enforce it, I believe we estimated we would need 19 lines.

That was not included in the executive budget.

Okay.

It still hasn't passed.

Because we want to pass that soon, so it sounds like we need some more money.

Yes.

Okay.

That sounds good.

I also want to ask, because again, we share the goal in being as ambitious as possible.

You guys are very good at what you do.

I know that there may be limits on what you can say about potential legislation or legislation that hasn't even come before you yet.

What do you see as other potential areas of expanded regulation that you are currently concerned with and to give you a not so surprise?

Or shocking example, would you support expanding what is already a successful fear work week law?

And would you have the resources to do that, or do you need more?

Well, without commenting on any specific bills, of course, since we're talking generally, look, I think it is absolutely a problem, especially with the advent of algorithmic scheduling, where

AI algorithms are deciding without any regard to the fact that workers have real lives and have families and have second jobs when people need to be on a shift.

It is not fair to tell a parent the morning of that they have to show up to work.

We have nation-leading protections for retail, for fast food.

And what I love about the protections in New York City is that it doesn't matter what the algorithm spits out.

At the end of the day, if you're a fast food worker, you get two weeks'notice.

If you're a retail worker, you get 72 hours'notice.

I'd be very interested in having conversations with you, conversations with the rest of the admin, about expanding those rights to other industries.

There's no reason workers should have to toil at the mercy of an algorithm that takes no account for the full lives that they lead.

Thank you.

Yeah, you need more money.

That's the takeaway.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Aldebar?