NEW YORK-UNS: New York City Mayor’s Office on Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), the Department of Buildings (DOB), and the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) today hosted an ethnic media roundtable and Q&A session to inform immigrant New Yorkers about worker rights and protections. The event brought together city leaders and community voices to spotlight the challenges facing workers, especially in immigrant and underserved communities, and to share vital tools, resources, and strategies for creating safer, fairer workplaces across New York City.
“Our immigrant workers have and will always be the backbone of city’s workforce. By informing workers of their rights and ensuring all workplaces are safe workplaces, our city benefits.” said Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Commissioner Manuel Castro. “Our goal remains to keep all of our immigrant community members informed through our Know Your Rights materials and other workshops to keep them up to date on crucial information related to their safety and reporting mechanisms.
“Each year, more than 500 New Yorkers lose their lives due to heat-related illness—a tragic and preventable consequence of our city’s rising temperatures,” said Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. “As climate change accelerates, we must do more to protect the health and safety of our communities. Deploying pop-up cooling stations in The Bronx and Queens will provide critical relief to outdoor workers during extreme heat events. It will also help us better inform future policies and initiatives as we expand our efforts to protect outdoor workers citywide.”
“A key piece of protecting workers, especially those they are new to our city, is making sure that they are aware of their rights,” said DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga. “Thank you to MOIA Commissioner Castro for hosting this roundtable to help educate our neighbors, as well as Department of Buildings and Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice for joining us to share key resources that help educate New Yorkers about their workers’ rights.”
“The construction industry is a major sector in the city’s economy and has historically been an important source of middle-class jobs and prosperity for immigrant communities here in New York City,” said Department of Buildings Assistant Chief Carlos Saavedra. “Our efforts at DOB to promote work site safety in the construction industry through the equitable enforcement of city regulations are helping to keep all workers and members of the public safe. We are proud of the outreach efforts we do in tandem with our government partners, especially MOIA, to help build connections with ethnic communities across the city.”
