Merchants Furious Over Department of Labor Raids

Here is a letter written by a longtime Fifth Avenue merchant to other Fifth and Seventh Avenue merchants. This merchant is fed up with being 'bombarded by seemingly endless government agencies with inspections, fines and audits."

I am trying to calm down after ranting to Councilman Yassky's office about what is happening on Fifth Avenue.  In the face of dwindling customer counts and rising expenses, we are being bombarded  by seemingly endless government agencies with inspections, fines and audits.

 

 Is it government's mission to put us out of business instead of trying to help us stare down the worst recession since the 1930's?  Every statistic indicates that the single greatest  source of jobs is small businesses !  Our BID district represents thousands of jobs which add to the economy.

 

In the last two years, since the rats in KFC in the Village, the Dept. of Health has been out of control. Multiple inspections, record breaking closings and fines we cannot afford, all in the guise of protecting public health. Government is hurting, not  helping small business face economic difficulties. The system  is broken and as long as the DOH  is a profit center for the city, no one is interested in fixing it.

 

The State Labor Dept charged onto Fifth Avenue hitting several restaurants  during business hours. They corralled  employees together and questioned them and in other cases they  actually followed waiters and bus persons around asking them questions while they were trying to take care of customers.They are requesting three years of records and the audits have not really started, so we do not at this point know how financially damaging this will be to our neighborhood businesses.

 

The last outrage (May 6, 2009) is that Sanitation  Police, the ones with guns, went into several stores and went through the garbage that was behind the counter, not trash that was on the streets, and issued fines for not recycling. As an American citizen this seems a violation of several rights.  When I called and questioned DOS, they of course said THEY INDEED HAD THE RIGHT to do this.  I am not a lawyer, but I find it difficult to believe this would hold up in court. 

 

The above does not include tickets from Consumer Affairs or Parking Violations Tickets where agents use no discretion  and make it almost impossible for to take packages in and out of our stores in our private vehicles and onerous to put sale items on the street as agents walk around with tape measures.  

 

Time to take my blood pressure medicine.

Hoping for better days