Mamdani Appoints Pro-Labor Lawyer To Run Worker Protection Agency

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Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani appointed a former Federal Trade Commission director to implement a "relentlessly pro-worker" agenda as the head of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, a position that has huge consequences for street safety as it regulates the omnipresent delivery app industry and its 80,000 workers on bikes and mopeds.

The announcement of former FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Sam Levine comes after Mamdani created a new Deputy Mayor position focused on "economic justice," two signals that the new administration will hold delivery apps accountable for their impact on the city.

"My life's work has been about ensuring that money and power cannot trample the rights and dignity of working people. I look forward to continuing that fight on behalf of New Yorkers,” Levine said at an introductory presser on Monday. “Gone are the days when companies like Instacart and DoorDash can bully their way into record profits on the backs of workers and consumers."

Mamdani's transition team focused the announcement on the delivery app industry, stating that the workers on two-wheels are "misclassified" as independent contractors.

"Despite providing food, groceries, and medications around the clock, many of the city’s 80,000 delivery workers — predominantly Black, brown, and immigrant New Yorkers — face dangerous working conditions and widespread misclassification as independent contractors," Monday's announcement read.

Since New Yorkers began ordering en masse from apps in 2020, the City Council passed many laws to regulate the rapidly growing industry. But the regulations have largely been piecemeal, and often the companies themselves influence the final product after spending big on political races.

The Department of Consumer and Worker protection has locked horns with Mayor Adams regarding multiple new laws to help workers. Adams vetoed the bill to expand the minimum pay standard to grocery delivery workers, closing the "Instacart Loophole," even as DCWP testified in support. The veto was later overridden.

The department says it needs funding for 20 new employees to properly regulate app giants and ensure they pay the city-mandated minimum wage, but the Adams administration only set aside funding for four positions — only to allocate even less during final budget negotiations with the Council. Mamdani said he wants to double the agency's budget.

Last week, the Council passed a "just cause" protection bill for app-workers that will expand the agency's portfolio even further. Mamdani suggested that he supported the move.

"We've seen time and time again that the efficacy of a law or protection can only be measured by the knowledge of it and the use of it, and there are so many existing laws that we have had whether for the last few months or the last few years that are not actually being enforced and we know that funding is a critical reason for that," the incoming 112th mayor told Streetsblog at the press release announcing Levine's appointment. "In doubling the funding for DCWP, we are confident in increasing its efficacy, enforcement, and oversight."

Mamdani's team has already been studying legislation in search of ways to fuel its agenda, said Levine's former FTC boss Lina Kahn. The delivery worker minimum pay standard law is a gold mine for an enterprising DCWP commissioner. Levine can use the city's rule making power to change the way the pay standard is implemented, and do more to help workers file complaints.

"As the mayor-elect said, I really want a city in which every worker knows that if they're getting ripped off on the job, if their schedule isn't predictable, if they're getting nickeled and dimed or deactivated by a gig platform, they can call 311, talk to DCWP, that we'd have the resources and the will to take action to hold those companies accountable and ensure justice for our workers,” said Levine.