|
FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE EXPERT
We interview Saru on the heels of ROC-NY release of their second report on the discriminatory practices in the NYC restaurant industry, "The Great Service Divide: Occupational Segregation & Inequality in the New York City Restaurant Industry."
What was the impetus for the report? What surprised you about the report's findings?
The reason ROC-NY published the current report was because although our first report, "Behind the Kitchen Door: Pervasive Inequality in New York City's Thriving Restaurant Industry," confirmed a lot of the things that we knew from experience regarding discrimination in the restaurant industry, we knew that there had to be a way to concretely measure and document discrimination in the industry. Most people don't realize that the restaurant industry is one of the largest private sector employers in the nation, that there are actually real living wage jobs in this industry, and that it is experiencing less than one-third of the job loss of the rest of the economy in this current economic crisis. With regard to discrimination, we knew that the results of our study were going to be dramatic, because our canvassing was blatantly showing occupational segregation.
What really surprised us was the extent of discrimination; in our matched pairs testing study, the industry showed a 31% rate of discrimination, compared to most industries, which demonstrate a discrimination rate in testing around 21%. An additional surprise was the fact that while discrimination based on race was not as overt - managers generally told applicants of color that there were no available jobs while white applicants were hired on the sport - in a few tests of very fine-dining restaurants, gender discrimination was very overt. In one case, the female testers were openly told "we don't hire women as servers here," saying that 'women [waiters]can't carry the serving trays." We found that, as a result of this gender discrimination, there was a $3K gender tax and a $5-6K gender AND race tax. That was really shocking. ROC-NY has conducted additional focus groups on gender discrimination in the industry, and will be putting out another report on gender discrimination in the industry in May.
Can you briefly describe why it's so important to look at the restaurant industry through a race/discrimination lens and specifically the high-end side (i.e. in terms of closing the racial wealth gap)?
The restaurant industry is the largest private sector employer in the nation, and one of the only sectors to be surviving right now that has living wage jobs. Liquor sales have increased, and so bartending jobs (which pay well) have become especially lucrative. But what we are seeing in our ROC affiliates in places like Chicago and Detroit is that laid off workers from declining sectors such as finance and auto - who are mostly white - are coming to our bartending classes, seeking employment in this industry. This is making it harder for workers of color to compete for jobs like bartending positions that earn a living wage. That's why we feel it's so important to promote restaurant workers from within, and provide training (bartending, fine-dining server classes) for them. Besides the barrier of race discrimination, many workers of color, lack the social networks and skills to get these types of living wage jobs.
What policy recommendations does the report make to eliminate racial discrimination? Are you pushing any legislation right now? What federal/state agencies need to be targeted or have the most influence? Are there examples of successful policies either at the federal, state, or local levels that are working?
Right now most policy interventions to combat discrimination are very reactive, and largely involve slapping penalties on employers who are discriminating. But statistics show that only a small percentage of people who are discriminated against actually sue for back wages, tips, etc, and for those that do, their burden of proof is very high. There are many more workers who don't even recognize that they are being discriminated against. The problem is that discrimination law is motive-based, not impact-based. This means that workers must show that their employer intended to discriminate, and if they cannot prove this, there is no legal remedy to having a workforce that is highly segregated. The ineffectiveness of litigation to address this discrimination has forced us to look to alternative solutions.
Our own legislative proposal is local legislation that would require employers to post promotion policies and front-level job openings to the workers within the restaurant, so that workers are at least aware of potential opportunities for advancement and how they might apply. Right now, the process is very informal. This way, workers can learn about potential openings, show interest or apply, which may also make discrimination easier to track. We spent a great deal of time researching potential policy solutions, and could not find any good examples of pro-active solutions that did not simply involve adding additional penalties to employers when they are successfully sued for discrimination. We thus had to develop our own legislative idea that does not exist anywhere. Affirmative action to combat discrimination has rarely been applied to the private sector.
It is likely that over the course of the next year to year and a half, we will see the passage of "comprehensive immigration reform." Seeing how the restaurant industry employs a large number of immigrants, mainly undocumented, what specific recommendations are restaurant worker advocacy organizations like ROC making and what outcomes would you like to see? What are the interests regarding immigration reform for the restaurant industry as a whole?
The restaurant industry nationwide relies heavily on immigrant workers. In New York City, the restaurant industry is 40% undocumented and 70% foreign born. This is one issue on which the National Restaurant Industry and ROC agree: these workers need to be able to stay. But the restaurant industry would favor guest worker programs, while we understand that workers need to be able to stay in the country, bring their families, become citizens, and live full lives. Most importantly, for the sake of all workers and even consumers, all workers need the right to organize. Without this right for undocumented workers alone, employers are able to exploit certain workers at the expense of all.
What is ROC working on now, did you discover any new areas of exploration as a result of the study (expansion, transnational unions, other studies, etc)?
There are six ROC affiliates, and we are opening up ROC-DC and ROC-LA later this year. We have met with the Mexican restaurant workers' union and have had some interaction with restaurant worker unions in England. We are headed to Austria this summer for a conference to make more connections in Europe.
With regard to other studies, each local ROC is performing their own local industry study similar to Behind the Kitchen Door. We will eventually compile all of the data from around the country for a more comprehensive national level restaurant industry report.
-Interview conducted in April 2009 by Victor Corral.
|
