NYC Lawmakers Want to Clean Up Dirty Laundry

by Stephanie Colombini | 02/26/2015 | 4:40pm

NYC Lawmakers Want to Clean Up Dirty Laundry

New York City lawmakers want to clean up the dirty laundry business.
New York City lawmakers have introduced a bill into the City Council that would regulate industrial laundries that violate health and labor standards. 
 
These laundries aren't like your local dry cleaner. They wash by the ton for hospitals, hotels, and restaurants. And Manhattan Council Member Dan Garodnick says employees are often exploited.
 
"These are workers who are working their heart out, slaving away, sweating and playing by the rules; and yet they enjoy no protections under the law," Garodnick said.
 
Bronx Council Member Ritchie Torres says laundry violations put all New Yorkers at risk, not just their employees.
 
"The industrial laundry sweatshops in New York City are ruthlessly exploiting workers, depriving them of wages, benefits and health insurance," Torres said.  "And since you have no regulation it's creating a public health risk."
 
Torres and Garodnick are co-sponsors of the Clean Act.  They say it would set cleanliness standards for industrial laundries and laundry deliver trucks that would improve conditions for workers as well as protect New Yorkers from infection and disease.  
 
If the standards and codes are violated, businesses would lose their licenses and not be allowed to keep operating in New York City.
 

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