New York, Combating Worker Abuse, Mandates Salon Owners to Secure Wage Bonds

A judge last week awarded Silvia Gonzalez, 49, and her daughter, both nail salon workers, more than $200,000 in wages owed and other damages.

According to Newyourktimes

For nearly six years, Silvia Gonzalez opened the doors of Romy’s Nails in Brooklyn at about 8:45 a.m. and left more than 12 hours later, six days a week. She performed manicures and pedicures with no lunch break, making $55 a day, or about $4.50 an hour. After Ms. Gonzalez had worked there four years, her pay increased to $80 a day, which was still below minimum wage. She recalled hearing her employer often proclaim to workers, many of whom were working illegally in the country, that no one could win against him in court.

Ms. Gonzalez proved him wrong. Sort of.

Last week a judge in Federal District Court in Brooklyn awarded Ms. Gonzalez, 49, and her daughter Martha Mendoza Gonzalez, 30, who also worked at the salon, more than $200,000 in wages owed and other damages. But their lawyer has said collecting that amount from the defendant in the case, Romelia Agudo, will probably be difficult.

To help ensure that future nail salon workers who win judgments against their employers in wage theft cases are paid, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, will put into effect a new rule on Monday. All nail salon owners will be required to secure wage bonds by Oct. 6, or face fines and other penalties, including the possible closing of their businesses. Salon owners would be able to use the bonds to pay legal judgments against them in wage-theft cases.

“Requiring owners to secure a wage bond will help ensure workers are paid what they are legally owed and that businesses have the funds they need to meet their financial obligations,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.

The requirement is the latest in a series of reforms the governor hasintroduced to address worker abuse and exploitation in nail salons after The New York Times published a two-part investigation on the industry in May.

The size of the bond that nail salons will be required to secure will depend on the number of employees at each business and the total number of hours those employees work. For example, at a salon with two to five full-time employees, the required bond would be at least $25,000. The cost of the bond would generally be 2 to 3 percent of the value of the bond.

The multiagency task force that the Cuomo administration established to carry out reforms in the nail salon industry will inspect salons to ensure the requirement is met.

Sarah Ahn, an organizer for the Flushing Workers Center, a workers’ organization, said it has become commonplace for nail salon owners to claim to have no means to pay judgments against them in wage-theft cases, often after taking steps to hide their assets.

“It’s really become part of the bigger practice,” she said.

Ms. Ahn worked closely with six manicurists from Babi, a Long Island chain of nail salons. The manicurists won a court award of more than $474,000 in 2012 for underpayment, but they have managed to collect only around $110,000. The chain’s owner, In Bae Kim, said he did not have the money to pay the judgment, but records showed that just before the trial, he sold property worth several million dollars.

“It’s like a chasing game,” Ms. Ahn said.

Still, she criticized the new rule because she said it continued to put the onus on the employer to take steps to protect workers. She favors a measure that would allow employees to place liens against an employer’s property until their wages are paid.

Kara Miller, a lawyer representing 10 former employees of the Envy Nails chain who are suing their employer for wages owed, said the requirement would be “a huge leap forward in protecting workers.”

Donald Yu, chairman of the board of directors for the Korean-American Nail Salon Association of New York, said it was too early to provide an opinion on the requirement.

Ms. Gonzalez’s daughter, Martha, who worked with her at Romy’s for several months in 2005, said being able to collect on the judgment would allow them to pay rent, bills and other expenses.

“It’s for survival,” she said in Spanish.

Martha Gonzalez worked at Romy’s nearly 12 hours a day, six days a week, initially for $30 a day, and then her pay went up slightly to $35 a day. One month into the job, she said, she became pregnant with her second child.

She and her mother worked for Galo Agudo, the brother of Ms. Agudo, the defendant in the case. The younger Ms. Gonzalez said Mr. Agudo’s wife criticized her, sometimes in front of clients, for her fits of nausea and vomiting, saying she should be stronger during her pregnancy. Ms. Gonzalez said she usually had no lunch break, or she would sometimes get only three minutes to eat before she went back to work. She said she left in September 2005 because she no longer wanted to deal with the working conditions.

“I knew that would all affect my child,” she said.

It was not until her mother was fired in 2009 that the two, both immigrants from Mexico, decided to take legal action.

The elder Ms. Gonzalez said she kept quiet regarding the abuse and humiliation she said she faced throughout her tenure at Romy’s Nails. She said Mr. Agudo’s wife would call her old and weak in front of customers.

Before her dismissal in June 2009, the elder Ms. Gonzalez said she took a month off after having an operation on her left foot. Shortly afterward, she said, she returned to Romy’s Nails hoping to get back to work. Instead, Ms. Gonzalez said, Mr. Agudo told her she could not work in her condition.

“They closed the doors on me,” she said, holding back tears while sitting in her apartment in Jamaica, Queens.

As the mother and daughter wait to hear about collecting their court award, Ms. Agudo, the defendant in the case, has moved to Florida, which could further complicate matters.

The Gonzalezes continue to work in the nail industry and have been employed at various salons. For Silvia Gonzalez, the award would go in part toward her dream of one day opening her own nail salon.

“I wouldn’t mistreat my workers,” Ms. Gonzalez said.