True to her socialist ideals, Queens City Councilwoman Tiffany Cabana is on a new crusade against the city’s private sector in an effort to ban layoffs.
The city’s Just Cause law prohibits fast-food establishments from laying off or laying off workers or even reducing hours by more than 15% “without just cause or a legitimate economic reason.” According to The Post’s Carl Campanile, Caban and City Comptroller Brad Landers want to radically expand it “to cover all workers and employers in the city, regardless of size or pay.”
And the micromanagement doesn’t stop there: Cabana’s bill also requires employers to fill every new or open position with employees laid off for economic reasons, in order of seniority.
More: It stipulates a generous severance package and prohibits employers from relying on employee data “obtained through electronic surveillance” in firing, disciplining, or promoting employees, and requiring them to provide extensive notice of such surveillance. And a minimum of 15 days must elapse between the initial warning or discipline and termination for cause, unless the termination is for “gross dereliction” of the employee’s duties.
Additionally, it would give third-party nonprofits the right to sue for infringement — an open invitation to blackmail through a nuisance lawsuit.
This is insanity. In the words of Kathryn Wylde, executive director of the New York Partnership, “Putting the recession aside, this would be the last straw for many employers. This is essentially the end of “at will” employment. Heck, that’s basically the end employment: No company can operate under these rules.
Even the supervisors see the insanity. As someone told Campanile, “What’s the point of a union if anyone can sue you, and what depressed person would open a small business if someone can sue you for firing an unprofessional employee?”
He also sees a local Democratic Socialist of America power grab: “It’s a transparent power play by the DSA to replace organized labor with their advocacy group allies while sinking the New York economy.”
At best, it betrays an absolute ignorance of how companies work by treating all employers as potential slave masters, guilty unless they can prove their innocence.
Again, Caban’s connection to reality is already quite weak. She is a big fan of #DefundthePolice, who wants to see a city without police, courts or prisons.
She is a menacing figure pushing leftist ideology beyond all hope of a safe and prosperous city. Queens voters, please give her the boot next year.
