Even as the NYPD targets e-bike riders with criminal tickets for traffic violations, catching immigrant food delivery workers in the dragnet, the City Council is sitting on a bill that would make the apps that dispatch them responsible to provide safety gear and training.
Introduced by Manhattan Councilmember Gale Brewer in January 2024, Intro 20 seeks to extend an existing law that requires restaurants to equip their delivery workers, applying it to the online apps that now dominate the industry, notably DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub.
Brewer’s bill would allow the city to revoke the operating license of companies after repeated violations. It was the subject of a public hearing more than 18 months ago and hasn’t moved since.
Intro 20 remains stalled in the Consumer Affairs committee with only 10 co-sponsors. On Monday, Brewer wrote her Council colleagues urging them to co-sponsor an updated version of the bill, writing: “I feel strongly that third party delivery services should be accountable for street and pedestrian safety.”
A draft of the amended bill obtained by THE CITY shows what Brewer calls “stronger penalties for repeat violations,” including the power of the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to revoke a company’s license for three or more strikes.
But Brewer has faced an uphill climb, following a blizzard of food app industry spending on lobbyists and political ads.
DoorDash responded to the new, tougher measure with a pointed blog post earlier this month, claiming it could lead to the immediate shutdown of the company. “An extreme new bill being rushed through City Council puts delivery and the benefits it brings at risk,” it declared.
When app lobbyists talk, many Council members pay close attention.
In all, the companies spent $3.2 million to promote Council candidates in this spring’s primary, including consumer committee chair Councilmember Julie Menin, who benefited from $143,129 in spending by Uber’s PAC, and labor committee chair Carmen De La Rosa, who got a $156,787 boost.
In the mayor’s race, DoorDash put $150,000 into a Super PAC boosting Speaker Adams in her failed mayoral primary campaign, using a union group as an intermediary, THE CITY reported.
Both Menin and De La Rosa are vying to succeed Adams, who is term-limited as Council speaker.
Lobbying records show the companies targeted more than a dozen City Council members, including Brewer, Menin and De La Rosa, to discuss the bill.
A spokesperson for De La Rosa did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment. A spokesperson for Menin directed questions about Intro 20 to the speaker’s office.
The next window for an amended bill to get introduced closes Sept. 2, ahead of a Sept. 10 full Council meeting, in a procedure controlled by Adams as the speaker.
Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for Adams, said the bill’s trajectory so far exemplifies the Council’s “deliberative” process for reviewing bills.
“Int. 20 is part of the Council’s ongoing efforts to advance a sustainable delivery sector and continues to go through the legislative process,” Desamours said.
“The agendas for the Council’s Stated Meetings in September have not yet been finalized. There are many considerations that contribute to the timing of when a bill is aged and scheduled for a vote,” said Desamours.
Brewer is losing patience.
“I believe the apps should be held accountable, I say that over and over again, for the safety of workers and the public,” she told THE CITY. “And it shouldn’t be the city, it should be the apps purchasing the equipment and making sure the courses are taken, and right now there’s nothing to hold them accountable.”
Concerns for Immigrants
Intro 20 updates a law, originally passed in 2012, that requires delivery cyclists to wear reflective vests with an identification number and take a safety training course via the city Department of Transportation.
Last amended in 2017, the law also requires employers to ensure their delivery cyclists have safety gear, such as bells and reflectors. Intro 20 would extend these requirements to app-based delivery workers, who the companies consider to be independent contractors, and add lithium-ion battery safety to the training.
Of special concern to the delivery apps is a proposed expansion of the city government’s power to pull the plug on the companies if they repeatedly violate the law. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection already has the ability to suspend or revoke a company’s license for two or more violations of existing laws on the industry, including measures protecting worker tips.
The new law would add to the app platforms the responsibility to make sure that the cyclists get trained, get gear, carry an ID card and wear an ID vest. The updated bill would give DCWP the power to pull the plug for three or more violations of any rules the Department of Transportation might put forward under the law — a situation DoorDash in its blog post called “unfair and extreme.”
Giving hypothetical examples of workers forgetting to put on their ID vests or wearing the wrong company’s ID, the memo continues: “In a city where we carry out tens of thousands of deliveries each day, three small mistakes could lead to DoorDash being completely banned on day one, with disastrous consequences for New York City Dashers, merchants and consumers.”
In an interview with THE CITY, Brewer said she heard similar concerns about the so-called three strikes rule from her Council colleagues. “I don’t know if the apps have been saying that to colleagues, or where they got that,” she remarked.
She said she’s willing to compromise — to a point.
“That could be changed. I don’t care if it’s a few more strikes and you’re out,” she said. “I don’t have a problem changing that. But that’s about all that I would change.”
After getting feedback from industry lobbyists and worker advocates, including the Workers Justice Project and New York Immigration Coalition, Brewer did make one other significant change to the old law: removing the ability of DOT to share with the police department a roster of who has completed the safety training, including people’s names and home addresses.
Nonetheless, the apps have seized on the potential threat to immigrant workers as a reason to oppose Intro 20.
“Intro. 20 singles out this 35,000 immigrant workforce for heightened surveillance and control,” Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said in a statement. “It would require these workers to display visible ID numbers at all times, mandate they carry and turnover identification cards with personal information, and expose them to police scrutiny — even in the absence of any violation.”
Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Workers Justice Project, said her group supports the premise to “put the responsibility on the apps to provide equipment and safety training.”
The apps companies’ stated concerns for immigrants, she contended, sought to cloud a worthwhile effort to help workers.
“We don’t trust the apps. And we know they’re trying to kill this bill, and they’re using the immigration fear to scapegoat what the real intention of this bill is,” said Guallpa.
