Giant rat on the sidewalk outside of the Coach clothing store where protestors accuse JKT Construction Inc. of worker exploitation. (Image: Natasha Grivas)
An inflatable rat sits outside of a Coach clothing store on Prince Street in New York’s affluent Soho district.
The rat has featured outside the store for the past week protesting the employer safety and wage distribution practices by New York construction company, JKT Construction.
The fliers being handed to passer-by’s outside of the clothing store accuses the construction company of shameful business practice through the exploitation of workers at the site.
“Untrained and unskilled construction workers lead to an unsafe workplace, shoddy workmanship and produces a lower quality finished product,” the flyer states.
“While New York City construction workers built our city, help show your support for their desire to work in a safe environment.”
“Receive a living wage, and be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
“We demand living wages for construction workers.”
One of the protestors hands out flyers outside the site. (Image: Natasha Grivas)
John Corso, president of Corcon commercial construction company and owner of JKT Construction Inc. has been a part of the construction industry for 30 years.
As well as the Coach store project, Corso’s company has been involved in projects with big name retailers including Empellon restaurant in Manhattan, SoulCycle in Texas and the luxury brand Hermes in Las Vegas.
According to a press release published in July by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Task Force to Combat Worker Exploitation, first launched in mid 2015, has conducted over 1500 investigations.
Through the investigations, the Task Force found over thousands of workers had been denied full wages.
The workers were also left unprotected by workers compensation policies and workplace health and safety.
Although this accusation of worker exploitation is taking place in New York City, it isn’t a far cry from the treatment some workers face in Australia.
Most recently in mid-July, the exploitation of migrant workers was found to have occurred through advertisements by Unions NSW.
An audit of the 200 advertised jobs found that four out of the five were for roles that paid below the minimum wage.
