AP
“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session,” wrote Manhattan Surrogate Judge Gideon Tucker in 1866 — and the likes of state Sen. Brad Hoylman are still proving him right, over 150 years later.
His worst current brainstorm is the so-called EmPIRE Act, which would “privatize” labor-law enforcement by letting anyone initiate class-action lawsuits on behalf of alleged wage-theft victims.
Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) and Assemblywoman Joanne Simon (D-Brooklyn) say the state Department of Labor is too understaffed and underfunded to do the job.
So why not fund and staff it up?
We’re plenty worried about crime in general, but we don’t argue for legalizing vigilantes.
And certainly not vigilantism for profit, as this bill does: It’s an open invitation to tort lawyers to initiate lawsuits against small employers (or even some big ones) in hopes of a fat go-away settlement.
New York already hosts a swarm of trial-lawyer locusts who work that legal racket on a host of fronts.
EmPIRE aims to copy a 20-year-old California law, the Private Attorneys General Act, that has brought a wave of lawsuits that small businesses and nonprofits have little ability to fight; reformers finally got a less-insane replacement on the Golden State ballot this November.
Not that trial lawyers are the only special interest that would exploit EmPIRE: It’s also be a gift to labor unions looking to organize a particular shop or industry.
Unions and the tort bar, not coincidentally, are two of the top sources of Albany campaign donations.
To be clear: Even businesses with pristine records would suffer under the EmPIRE Act, since their already-obscene costs for liability insurance would soar even more.
This will force some firms (e.g., many fast-food franchises) that already operate with thin profit margins to shut down, killing lower-wage jobs in the name of rescuing low-wage workers.
An Echelon poll for New Yorkers for Local Business found that only 32% of New Yorkers support the intention of the bill when it’s fully explained.
New Yorkers know a con when they see one, which is why so much Albany business is done out of sight.
And so why the state’s business climate grows ever more hostile, and pretty much everything here, less affordable.
Gov. Hochul and moderate legislators need to stomp on this bill now.