Q&A
Council Member Krishnan questions officials on Intro 276 regarding driver deactivations
1:58:48
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172 sec
Council Member Shekar Krishnan questions Commissioner David Do and Assistant Commissioner Carlos Ortiz about Intro 276, which aims to regulate the deactivation of high-volume for-hire vehicle drivers. The discussion covers the bill's potential impact on existing processes, recommendations for the legislation, and the anticipated number of complaints or cases.
- Officials emphasize building upon existing successes and creating fair standards for workers
- Potential recommendations include tweaks to arbitration processes and separation pay provisions
- Estimates of annual deactivation cases range from 2,000 to 13,000, potentially requiring additional resources for DCWP
Shekar Krishnan
1:58:48
Thank you so much.
1:58:49
Majority of Brooks Powers.
1:58:50
Thank you, commissioner.
1:58:52
And I just have a a few questions for you on intro 276.
1:58:56
My first question is, will this bill negatively impact any existing processes to deal with deactivation?
David Do
1:59:06
So I'll have, I think, Carlos answer that question.
1:59:10
He's with DCWP who will be implementing this new law.
Shekar Krishnan
1:59:14
Sure.
1:59:14
Thank you.
Carlos Ortiz
1:59:14
Thank you, commissioner.
1:59:17
I think council member with respect to your question, our goal with this legislation is to, I think, build upon the successes of workers and worker advocates support existing processes that are out there certainly.
1:59:27
But ultimately create a fair standard for all workers in New York City in this for high vehicle space.
1:59:33
I certainly was very appreciative of the remarks in your opening statement to this point about other processes that are out there.
1:59:39
I think that is the same intent that we have as administration and we'll want to work with you on that as we go in the lead process.
Shekar Krishnan
1:59:44
So just to be clear, would this impact any other existing processes right now?
Carlos Ortiz
1:59:51
I think what we plan to I think my plan is to ensure when we're drafting that we're not making any impacts unnecessarily.
1:59:58
I think again, we wanna build upon success Right.
2:00:01
Not walk back anything that that workers and the advocates have have won for us.
Shekar Krishnan
2:00:04
Got it.
2:00:06
Do you have or or how many sorry.
2:00:08
One, of course.
2:00:09
Do you have any recommendations for the legislation?
Carlos Ortiz
2:00:12
Yes.
2:00:12
I think council member, you know, we've had a lot of of experience now in the space of just cause predictions for fast food workers, a lot of experience in the context of food delivery workers.
2:00:23
I think there are certainly tweaks you might want to working to legislation around arbitration and making it a more efficient and effective process for workers who won't engage in that process.
2:00:33
I think there's components of separation pay we think might be interesting that could help folks if they've been deactivated or unfairly deactivated.
2:00:41
I think these would really help make sure that we are reducing the financial, devastating financial impact that an unfair deactivation could have or also were disincentivizing companies having to deactivate workers too.
Shekar Krishnan
2:00:56
And finally, how many complaints or cases do you anticipate?
Carlos Ortiz
2:01:00
I I think, councilman, right now, I heard my colleagues from from Nysoel mentioned something around 2000 cases that they've they've worked through.
2:01:07
I've heard case I've heard numbers from other advocates of upwards of 13,000 cases a year on deactivation.
2:01:14
So I think we're looking at that kind of ballpark.
2:01:16
And for us, it's certainly helpful for that to be kind of fleshed out in the record because You know, we work very closely with OMB to identify resources if they're needed, and this kind of a caseload is definitely significant.
Shekar Krishnan
2:01:26
So it would require perhaps funding or support resources additional resources for DSWP?
Carlos Ortiz
2:01:30
I think that's part of the conversation we have to have, particularly with this amount of cases that that are are being spoken to on the record.
Shekar Krishnan
2:01:36
Alright.
2:01:37
Thank you.
2:01:38
No further question.
2:01:39
Thank you.