Mineola, Long Island – Nassau County has upgraded their living wage laws to prevent vendors and businesses from bypassing County labor regulations.
“Nassau is taking action to help working-class families and hold accountable the companies we do business with,” said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. “The loophole we closed allowed companies to appear smaller than they actually were to avoid paying their workers a living wage,” continued Curran. The County Executive discussed changes in their labor laws at a recent press conference attended by several union leaders including John Durso, president of RWSDU/UFCW Local 338 and chairman of the Living Wage Advisory Board.
The living wage legislation is designed to ensure that employees of county vendors are earning a decent wage, receiving health benefits and getting an appropriate number of days off, said County Executive Curran. Under the law, a county vendor’s full-time employees are eligible for 12 paid days off for sick leave, vacation or personal necessity.
Since many companies who were seeking contracts with the county nefariously would meet the qualifications for a waiver in order to avoid the living wage requirement – Nassau County needed to update the regulations. The changes to the law allow the county to review a vendor’s parent company and related subsidiaries as well as their compensation when determining waiver eligibility.
