29 Job Agencies Cited as Slackers By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

null Thursday, March 27, 1997

Job-seeking New Yorkers are being ripped off by unscrupulous employment agencies that charge illegal fees, refuse to give refunds and violate other regulations, a new city investigation shows.

Six consumer investigators who went undercover and applied for jobs through 29 employment agencies this month uncovered violations of city rules at all but three of the firms.

In all, the investigators found 51 violations — like those that confronted Deirdre Archibald, a Brooklyn mother of two who said she got a runaround when she sought a job through a Queens employment agency in 1995. The investigation found:

Six of the 29 firms operated without required city licenses.

Nine companies illegally charged fees as high as $100 before placing the applicants in jobs. Fees may be charged only after placement.

Ten of the firms failed to post required signs indicating their license numbers, fee schedule and where dissatisfied clients can file complaints.

City consumer investigators padlocked two other Manhattan agencies — J & U Employment Agency and 8 Chatham Square Employment Agency — for continuing to operate without a license after being cited by investigators last year.

“It is really unconscionable and a disgrace that employment agencies throughout the city are luring the public in with false hopes of jobs and ripping them off,” said Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jose Maldonado.

If found guilty, the companies could face fines totaling $37,100.

Archibald, a Grenadian immigrant, said she found out about unscrupulous practices she went to the City Wide Employment Agency in Queens to seek a secretarial position. Her resume outlined her work experience in Grenada and New York.

Archibald said the company charged her $100 up front — then failed to deliver and gave her the runaround when she demanded a refund.

“I was very angry. It was very stressful,” said Archibald. “They gave me a lot of petty excuses.”

Archibald said she demanded her money back after months of constant calls to the firm produced just one job interview — and she did not get that position.

“When I went back for the refund, it was such a hassle,” Archibald said. “Every time I went there, somebody had a backache and couldn’t look through the books right now.”

She filed a complaint with the Department of Consumer Affairs in August. The complaint produced an $80 refund in December. The refund helped the firm avoid being cited for a consumer violation.

The owner of City Wide Employment Agency denied Archibald’s allegations. The woman, who declined to give her name, said Archibald missed several appointments to settle her refund application. One refund check even was reissued because it expired, the woman said.

“This license is my life, my bread and butter,” she said. “Whatever we do, we have to do honestly. It is my life.”

TRACK WORKERS UNDER SCRUTINY; REGULATORS VOW BETTER CHECKING

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 21, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B03

The New Jersey Racing Commission plans to meet with state and federal agencies in a effort to tighten up its worker licensing procedures, after 70 Meadowlands Racetrack stable hands were taken into custody Tuesday as illegal aliens.

Bruno Verducci, assistant director of the commission, said Wednesday that except in obvious cases, Racing Commission workers cannot determine the authenticity of immigration papers presented by the workers.

Allen Kampel, a supervisory special agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said most of the workers taken into custody obtained licenses from the commission by using false immigration papers. The workers need the state licenses before they can be hired by trainers.

The INS investigation has now shifted to the trainers, Kampel said. The agency will try to determine whether they knowingly hired illegal aliens.

Verducci said that he would meet with immigration officials and state police to talk about teaching commission workers how to do a better job of spotting bogus documents.

Describing the current procedure, Verducci said: “If there is ever a question as to the identity of the individual seeking a license, or the credentials that he presents, that person is refered to the state police racetrack unit that is lodged at the backstretch of the track. So, that is the safety valve. If they don’t come back, then you know.”

Although the state’s five racetracks check workers commission licenses, horse trainers like small businesses are responsible for ensuring that the stable hands they hire are authorized to work, Verducci said.

The INS recognizes that it is hard for employers to determine the authenticity of resident-alien ards ndth orkthiauments that people present to them, Kampel said. The INS would not hold them responsible if they could show they made good-faith efforts to determine whether the employees are legal.

In the next phase of the investigation, Kampel said, the INS will check whether the trainers knowingly hired illegal workers or checked their documentation. The 1986 Immigration Reform Control Act mandated that employers fill out a special form verifying that each worker is authorized to work in this country.

If it can be proved that the employers either knowingly hired illegal workers or did not fill out the form, the employers could be fined, Kampel said. Fines could range from a minimum of $250 per illegal worker in a first offense by an employer to a maximum of $10,000 per employee, he said.

Meanwhile, the 70 stable hands detained Tuesday by the INS, with assistance from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and state police, were released pending deportation hearings.

Most of the stable hands are Mexican.

FIRED WORKER CHARGED WITH ATTACKING BOSS

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, November 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A02

A 31-year-old man who police said attacked his supervisor when she fired him for showing up drunk for work at the Dwight-Englewood School was being held in the Bergen County Jail on Friday.

Raymond Todd Walker of Morris Avenue, Englewood, was charged with aggravated assault, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct, said Englewood police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley. Bail was set at $9,000.

The supervisor, whom police declined to identify, noticed that Walker was drunk when he arrived at work shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, authorities said. She told him his employment at the school was terminated. Tinsley said the supervisor told police Walker became irate, showering her with obscenities.

She said Walker then grabbed her by the arms, choked her, threw her over a desk, and banged her head over a partition. She was treated at Englewood Hospital for minor injuries and was released.

Police arrested Walker near the school on Palisade Avenue a few minutes after the incident. School officials could not be reached for comment.

PSYCHIATRIC DEFENSE UNCERTAIN FOR POST OFFICE MURDER SUSPECT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, October 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A20

Joseph M. Harris is one of six inmates in the Bergen County Jail and its annex who have been convicted or accused of murder.

Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune said Harris is being kept on suicide watch in a single cell in the mental ward in the annex. Other than that, the living arrangements for Harris will be no different from anyone else’s in the jail, Terhune said.

Harris has had one visitor: a cousin who declined to discuss the visit, made on Friday, and asked that he not be identified. The sheriff confirmed that the cousin was the only visitor.

Harris journey through the courts has barely begun, and will be a long one.

“What we are doing is preparing the case for a grand jury, and, in addition, this case is one that we have to decide whether or not to ask for the death penalty. We have not made that decision yet,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy.

“He has not asserted any kind of psychiatric defense. He may. That’s his right,” Fahy said.

In readying the case for presentation to a grand jury, investigators are seeking to determine how and where Harris amassed the arsenal he took to the Ridgewood post office. He carried a .22-caliber gun that can be purchased legally, but it was equipped with an illegal silencer. The Uzi and MAC submachine guns he also carried could have been purchased legally in New Jersey prior to May 31, when they were outlawed as part of a state ban on assault weapons.

Investigators also will be checking Harris telephone records, as well as those of the families and friends of his victims.

Fahy said he expected an indictment in six to eight weeks.

“There’s no doubt this is the worst murder I’ve seen since I’ve been a prosecutor,” Fahy said. “The scary thing is that it could have been a lot worse. ”

Keywords: WAYNE; RIDGEWOOD; MURDER; MAIL; EMPLOYMENT; MENTAL; HEALTH

ID: 17357983 | The Record (New Jersey)

AFTER THE KILLING SPREE, SUICIDE WATCH FOR SUSPECT

By Bill Sanderson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, October 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

Joseph M. Harris, the fired postal worker accused of killing four people early Thursday, was under a suicide watch Friday in a single cell in the Bergen County Jail’s mental health ward, said Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune.

Harris, 35, of Paterson was being held on $1 million bail on charges of killing his former supervisor and her boyfriend in their Wayne home, and of later killing two employees at the Ridgewood post office. He surrendered to a SWAT team Thursday morning.

Harris was armed with two machine guns, several hand grenades, a samurai sword, and homemade pipe bombs when he was arrested.

Investigators were not sure Friday where Harris obtained his guns, or whether he had any gun permits. John J. Fahy, the Bergen County prosecutor, said two of Harris three weapons Uzi and MAC-10 semiautomatic rifles were assault weapons banned under a 1990 New Jersey law.

When the case is presented to a grand jury, the weapons offenses could be added to the list of charges against Harris, which include four counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping, and possession of hand grenades.

Fahy said he may seek the death penalty against Harris. He said he will ask prosecutors and investigators for advice on the matter, and that he would also consider psychiatric evidence from Harris defense lawyers.

A state medical examiner’s autopsy of Carol Ott, Harris former supervisor, shows she was stabbed four to six times in the upper body. The other victims Cornelius Kasten Jr., Johannes M. VanderPaauw, and Donald McNaught were gunshot victims.

Keywords: RIDGEWOOD; WAYNE; MURDER; MAIL; EMPLOYMENT; BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – ED HILL / THE RECORD – Postal officer in Ridgewood Friday. Sign reads: “We thank you for your condolences at this difficult time. Please do not ask the window clerks any questions regarding the events of yesterday. Thank you.”

KILLER’S HOME WAS WELL-KNOWN; HIS NEIGHBORS HAD COMPLAINED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, October 11, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS Page A11

Type: PROFILE

The white brick and stucco home at Derrom and 14th avenues where Joseph M. Harris lived has been inspected many times by city zoning officials following complaints by neighbors that it was an illegal rooming house.
Neighbors standing outside Thursday as police entered and left sounded the same complaints, saying blaring horns, loud arguments, and fights at the house often punctuated the evenings. Harris is accused of killing four people during a murderous spree early Thursday morning.
City records show zoning officials began receiving complaints that the home was an illegal rooming house in 1985, zoning officer Thomas Shadiack said Thursday. “We went out there and found there were two rooms in the basement that were rented out,” he said.
Marianna Costa of Haledon owns the stately, spacious home where Harris lived in a second-floor room, above a kitchen at the back of the house.
The house has five bedrooms, five baths, and parquet floors throughout, Costa said. There are two fireplaces, one cobblestone and the other green marble, and one room has a bar with leather trimming and stainless steel fixtures.
Costa bought the house more than a decade ago for her daughter, but a year or so later the daughter decided to move and Costa made an option-to-buy agreement with Carmen Johnson, who put $2,000 down and agreed to pay several hundred dollars a month toward the purchase.
The city cited both Costa and Johnson for illegal conversion of the house to a rooming house after the September 1985 inspection, Shadiack said. Costa convinced a judge that Johnson was responsible for the house, he said, and Johnson pleaded guilty to the charge. She was fined $1,000, plus $25 in court costs.
Records show that zoning officials, responding to more complaints by neighbors, went to the house five times between February 1987 and June 1989 and asked for an affidavit listing the occupants of the house in October 1988. The city sent several letters to Costa and Johnson as a result of those inspections, but no legal action was taken.
Johnson on Thursday denied the home was a rooming house and said all those living there were related to her and didn’t pay rent.
In a Dec. 12, 1988, affidavit, filed by her lawyer, Clifford S. Hinds of Paterson, Johnson listed the following as occupants: herself, her husband, Earl; sons, Archie and Herman Burrell; daughter, Christine McDonald; and husband’s nephew, Harris.

Keywords: PATERSON; RIDGEWOOD; MAIL; EMPLOYMENT; SHOOTING; MURDER; JOSEPH M. HARRIS

Caption: (Early editions only) PHOTO – ED HILL / THE RECORD – Members of a police bomb squad on Thursday leaving the home at 215 Derrom Ave. in Paterson where Joseph M. Harris lived.

NEW LAW ON SWEATSHOPS CALLED WEAK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, June 23, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

The strain of trying to regulate the apparel industry in the state and put an end to sweatshops became clear in an unguarded moment Friday, when state Labor Commissioner Raymond Bramucci admitted that even an expected new law isn’t strong enough.
Before retracting that statement, made at a news conference, he added that he did not have enough inspectors to enforce the current law, which expires June 30.
“We have very, very poor means to police this industry,” Bramucci said. “We are trying to make it much more difficult to operate here. It is not easy. . . . We try to do a job with the tools given to us. It took us a whole lot of arguing to get this [the new law] through, and I don’t think it is strong enough.”
Someone asked how many people would be needed to inspect the thousands of sweatshops in the state. He declined to say.
“I want to work this out first,” he said. “I’m sorry I said that. Scratch it. I want to try to enforce this law first, vigorously.
“We have enough people to give a powerful signal. We don’t have to hit every factory, every minute of every day. But if we have means like we’re going to have with this new law, which gives us the right to seize goods and close down factories after repeated violations, we will have the beginning of the tool to have a reasonable control of the industry.”
Bramucci had invited the journalists along for raids Friday by federal and labor officials on two sweatshops. Since the crackdown started on Monday, 23 shops have been cited for violations of the state Apparel Registration Act, and for various federal and state wage, hour, child labor, home work, and records infractions.
Legislation awaiting Governor Florio’s signature would establish an Apparel Industry Unit, which would investigate violations of state laws and exploitation of workers. Starting this fall, the Labor Department will train industry workers at regional technical and vocational schools, Bramucci said.
At the first stop on Friday, state, federal, and city inspectors followed by about 25 journalists entered a garage with red roofing shingles for siding behind 4002 Palisade Ave., Union City. The shop was about 70 feet by 25 feet. Inside was an operation known as Lucy Fashion, with 11 sewing machines and, on several clotheslines, hundreds of blouses and skirts tagged “Made in USA.”
Lucy Fashion was one of the worst examples of the shops inspectors visited in Hudson and Essex counties last week, Bramucci said. A Union City fire inspector also cited the shop for building and fire code violations.
Bramucci said the shop would probably be long gone before the state could make it comply with regulations. Fly-by-night operations are rampant in the industry, making it difficult to keep count of the sweatshops. He estimated that about 10,000 people work in North Jersey sweatshops.
Bramucci blamed the conditions on New York garment manufacturers who farm out work to contractors without paying them enough to adequately compensate workers.
The renewed enforcement would help combat one of the plagues that the legitimate apparel industry faces: low labor costs in the sweatshops, said Aleta Hernandez, assistant political education director in New Jersey for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
The low labor costs in foreign countries drove the jobs in the industry underground, and made doing business legally difficult for local companies that often have to pay at least minimum wage, health insurance, and other benefits, Hernandez said.
Hernandez also blames greed on the part of the manufacturers because the low costs do not necessarily translate to low prices for consumers. All profits go into the pockets of manufacturers, she said.
Labor lawyer Craig Livingston said he sees at least another culprit in what he called an assault on the American worker: the U.S. government.
“The United States is probably unique in the world in not protecting its basic industries from cheap imports,” Livingston said. “Our basic industries are being crucified on the cross of free trade.”

Keywords: CLOTHING; EMPLOYMENT; LAW; STORE; VIOLATION; NEW JERSEY; UNION CITY

TROOPERS BEING TRAINED TO DISPATCH; THEY’D REPLACE LAID-OFF CIVILIANS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

The state police on Thursday began training 29 officers in dispatching in the wake of notices sent to 123 of the agency’s 127 civilian dispatchers that they would be laid off next month.
The two-day instruction of senior troopers and sergeants at Fort Dix ensures that the agency will have trained people operating its criminal-justice information system should the layoffs go through, said Capt. Thomas Gallagher, a state police spokesman.
The dispatchers union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission, and has asked the state Department of Personnel for an affirmative-action review because the dispatchers are predominantly women and minorities, the union’s president said.
Dominick Critelli, who heads the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents the dispatchers, also questioned the wisdom of laying off dispatchers who earn between $18,000 and $25,000 a year and replacing them with officers who earn about $45,000.
Public safety would suffer because fewer troopers would be enforcing the law; at the same time, the state won’t see the expected $3.3 million savings from the layoffs, Critelli said.
“I can’t see cutting services in the area that they are cutting because there is nothing gained economically,” he said. “What you are talking about is a loss in services for basically the same dollar amounts if these people lost their jobs and go on to collect unemployment and receive some type of social assistance.”
Gallagher said public safety would not suffer because the people being trained to do the job work in the offices. They would just have to assume the additional responsibility of operating the dispatching system, he said.
The $3.3 million savings expected from laying off the dispatchers should bring to $7.2 million the amount saved by state police labor cuts this fiscal year and in next year’s budget.
Earlier this year, the state police cut $1.1 million from this year’s budget by laying off 32 inspectors from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau, Gallagher said.
The savings from the dispatcher layoffs, plus $2.8 million expected from the laying off of 160 security guards in state buildings, would be applied to next year’s budget, he added.
Civilians have been working as dispatchers since the state created the position in 1970 as a way to put more troopers on the road.

Keywords: POLICE; NEW JERSEY; INFORMATION; EMPLOYMENT

POLICE LAYOFFS MAY FOIL TETERBORO PLAN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

County Executive William “Pat” Schuber’s proposal to lay off eight county police officers this year could derail Teterboro’s plan to have the department absorb four of its officers, officials say.
The proposal would have had the department, which has 95 officers, take on the four borough police officers in exchange for compensation.
But Jerrold Binney, Schuber’s chief of staff, said the proposed layoffs would imperil that plan. Bringing in the Teterboro officers whose experience ranges from seven to 18 years would create difficulties in assessing seniority levels, he said.
Borough Manager Michael W. Tedesco could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Peter Neillands, Bergen County police chief and director of public safety, was formally notified Wednesday that 21 employees from the county Division of Public Safety, including the eight police officers, would be laid off. Freeholders have not yet formally approved the layoffs.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; GOVERNMENT; OFFICIAL; TETERBORO; POLICE; EMPLOYMENT

HOSPITAL WORKERS ILL FROM FUMES; OPERATING ROOMS TEMPORARILY SHUT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 4, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

The Valley Hospital operating-room staff was reassigned and all non-emergency operations were suspended Thursday after six employees were treated for illness from an unknown odor, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The employees, including nurses and technicians, smelled the odor while they were in a lounge for the operating-room staff, said Eileen Lumpkin, director of marketing and public relations for the Ridgewood hospital.
Lumpkin declined to identify the employees who became ill, but said they suffered headaches, itchy eyes, and nausea.
About 50 patients will be rescheduled because of the suspension of non-emergency operations, she said. The suspensions will remain in effect today to allow for analysis of the air in the area and inspection of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, Lumpkin said.
Two of the hospital’s six operating rooms will continue to be used for emergency operations, she said.
Lumpkin said workers in areas adjacent to the operating rooms, which are served by the same heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, were told of the problem, but no illness was reported in those areas.
Some employees complained Wednesday about fumes in the lounge, but the smell became “dominant” Thursday, she said, adding that fumes were noticed in the past but they weren’t strong enough to cause sickness.
Lumpkin said Michael W. Azzara, president of Valley Hospital, met with the hospital staff Thursday morning to assure them that the hospital is doing all it can to find the source of the fumes.
Richard Van Hassle, hospital vice president, said: “We don’t know what it was, and that is what we are trying to find out. What we have done is called in this environmental company to test the air and a professional engineer to review the air-handling equipment to determine the cause of the problem. “
Atlantic Environmental Inc. of Dover and Chet Vogel, an engineer from New York City, were hired by the hospital to do the work, Lumpkin said.
The hospital also is investigating whether the fumes came from trucks at a construction site near the operating rooms, she said.
Lisa Levy, industrial-hygiene supervisor for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said the agency was notified of the incident but did not investigate because the employees were treated and released.

Keywords: RIDGEWOOD; HOSPITAL; EMPLOYMENT; HEALTH; PROBE; AIR