New Yorkers flocked to sanitation garages this week to answer the call for emergency snow shovelers. But those winter laborers may not have realized that they likely won’t get paid for that work until spring.
Several emergency snow shovelers who worked during January’s big storm have not been paid a month afterwards, they told THE CITY. And others who worked this week said payment information was unclear or not discussed.
Dan Bennette, a 38-year-old lifelong Queens resident from South Ozone Park who began working as a snow shoveler on Jan. 26, told THE CITY that he has not yet been paid.
“They just informed us that at the end of the season, when everything is finished, that’s when they’ll cut us a check,” Benette said. “Some people have the assumption that we would be paid weekly or bi-weekly.”
Joshua Goodman, a spokesperson for the sanitation department, said people who responded to the call for shovelers and worked this week may be paid in two weeks, but this is not guaranteed. Last year, it took between four and six weeks to pay workers, he said. On the city’s 311’s website, information about emergency snow shoveling work says payment could take up to 12 weeks.
For Bennette, he’s staying patient. The newlywed and aviation operations worker has been unemployed for about eight months — the longest he’s ever gone without a paycheck. So he welcomed the opportunity to work in the snow.
“This will get me up out of the house, off the couch and going out and being a productive person in society,” he said.
Others he worked with were not as easy-going about the pay wait. Bennett recalled that when a fellow shoveler this week learned DSNY would not pay until March, he stood up and walked out of the garage.
Yasmine, who spoke to THE CITY this week, said her son shoveled for the city after snowfall on Dec. 14 and had to wait until the beginning of February to get paid. When DSNY called him in January and again this week asking if he wanted to work, he said no both times. Instead, he shovelled private houses and driveways and got paid the same day.
Hellbound and Down 