Q&A
CCHR's work with worker co-ops and employment-related complaints
1:20:03
·
175 sec
Council Member Williams inquires about CCHR's work with worker co-ops and employment-related complaints. Deputy Commissioner JoAnn Kamuf Ward discusses a report on worker-owned co-ops and the commission's efforts to address discrimination in these workplaces.
- CCHR partnered with the Center For Family Life to study worker-owned co-ops
- Focus groups were held to assess awareness of human rights laws among co-op members
- CCHR is updating trainings, including sexual harassment training, to be more accessible
- The commission is continuing outreach and education efforts with worker co-ops
Nantasha M. Williams
1:20:03
Okay.
1:20:04
Thank you.
1:20:11
So I am turning my questions to trends in employment related complaints.
1:20:29
Early in 24, CCHR released a report highlighting that New York City's growing number of worker co ops, which are businesses owned and operated by their workers, may introduce new considerations and questions for combating discrimination in the workplace.
1:20:43
Can you share a little bit about your findings and how the commission conducts its its work in relations to worker co ops, and has the commission made any changes in its work on the basis of that report?
JoAnn Kamuf Ward
1:20:55
We love that report.
1:20:56
Thank you for asking about that report.
1:20:59
It was, we, with the Center For Family Life in Brooklyn, received a a very small, grant to explore, how to build trust and relationships between local government, and worker owned co ops.
1:21:13
And I think this is an area where council has been, very supportive through funding and and other measures.
1:21:20
So we worked together for, for a year with the Center For Family Life to bring worker, owned, cooperative members to CCHR and hold focus groups, generally thinking about what is awareness of the human rights law, and I think it turned into what are people's experiences with human rights, which could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
1:21:43
But, you know, this is a space where, a lot of, immigrant and a lot of, immigrant women are are turning, for for economic stability.
1:21:55
So we partnered very closely.
1:21:56
We held the focus groups in in Spanish, and as the report, was released towards the end, there were 3 recommendations that we made to to ourselves.
1:22:08
One, was very much dependent on there being a second year of the project, which did not come to fruition.
1:22:13
But 2 of the pieces are things that we're acting upon and that is, updating our trainings, especially things like our required sexual harassment training to make it more accessible to individuals who are not sitting at a computer all day like some of us.
1:22:27
And so we will be releasing an updated, kind of, more tech friendly version of the sexual harassment training, which is required for employers, or for employees, including domestic workers, so that that can can happen and that people could share it with their employers more easily.
1:22:44
And then I think the other piece where we've continued to work very closely with the Center For Family Life is around, the protections in our law and doing trainings and outreach and education with Center For Family Life and their, and their members.
