Tuesday, March 21, workers from the UWS restaurant Swagat were joined by other workers and community members at a press conference to demand that owners Lala and Abishek Sharma pay their workers the wages they are owed. Two Swagat workers worked as many as 81 hours a week for as little as $3.33 an hour and are estimated to be owed a total of $1 million. The workers call for a boycott of Swagat and the Sharma’s other businesses (Badshah-to-go at 80 Nassau St, Madame Ji at 154 Bleeker, and Rang at 11-03 44th Ave) until they receive the pay they have earned. Furthermore, the workers will advocate for the passage of the SWEAT bill (A 46/S 1977), which would ensure that law-breaking bosses are held accountable for their actions and workers can collect on their wage theft judgments. They will also demand that the NYC Hospitality Alliance stop protecting sweatshop bosses by lobbying against SWEAT and instead support this much-needed legislation which would enable bosses like Lala and Abishek Sharma to be held accountable.
