This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced several city agencies will implement workplace protections for delivery workers starting in 2022. Delivery app companies will be regulated through the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which will also enforce new labor standards for delivery workers, including instituting a minimum pay and giving delivery workers control over their routes. Workers must be paid at least once a week, and apps cannot charge a fee to process payments. Other provisions also include access to bathrooms for workers and increased transparency surrounding tips.
In other local immigration news…
Documented launches new website
We just launched our new website, ushering Documented into its next chapter after over three years of bringing you the most important stories about immigration and immigrant communities in New York City. In his welcome piece, editor Max Siegelbaum highlighted how Documented began and some of the impacts our publication has had in the years since. A series we published led to public dollars being divested from private prison companies in Canada and New Jersey. Another helped end ICE courthouse arrests. Our work was referenced in federal lawsuits, by government watchdog organizations and many media outlets. We hope you enjoy the new site as much as we do. If so, please consider donating to support our work. Our annual fundraising campaign is still in full force and all contributions are being matched dollar for dollar — and it all goes toward our work of investigating and telling stories that matter to immigrant New Yorkers.
Settlement reached with home health aides suing for unpaid wages
A federal court approved a settlement of $600,000 from Scharome Cares Inc., the employer of six home health aides — all Chinese women aged 56 to 70 — to cover unpaid wages and overtime pay, as well as damages and penalties. The workers had been paid less than the minimum wage, despite working around the clock. The settlement follows an agreement by another two New York City-based home health companies — Intergen Health, LLC and Amazing Home Care Services, LLC — to pay over $18 million to compensate about 12,000 workers following an investigation by the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the state attorney general. City Limits
