Mystique Owner Arrested for Wage Theft
NEW YORK, NY – The fashion police weren’t the only ones making arrests in SoHo this week. On Tuesday, Feb. 23, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the arrest of David Cohen, owner of the Mystique Boutique retail chain, for allegedly failing to pay minimum wage and overtime as well as falsifying documents and intimidating and bribing witnesses. The Retail Action Project (RAP) applauds Cuomo’s decision in this step towards ending wage theft in New York.
“For decades the retail sector has been a free-fire zone of worker abuse. We applaud the Attorney General for this arrest, which puts merchants on notice that New Yorkers have zero tolerance for employer lawlessness,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). “This gives our fight for ending wage theft and securing a living wage for retail workers a real boost.”
David Cohen, who owns Mystique Boutique and its sister stores Amsterdam, Madness and Exstaza, was charged with criminal and civil counts that include falsifying business records, criminal retaliation, witness tampering and failure to pay wages. The Attorney General is seeking over $1.5 million in damages.
“We want retailers to know that those who violate wage and hour laws are not welcome in our community,” said Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).
The arrest follows a March of Hearts against wage theft that took place on Feb. 3, in which hundreds of retail workers joined RAP for a march up Broadway to demand millions of dollars in stolen wages from Mystique and two nearby retail chains—Shoe Mania and Scoop NYC.
Prior to the investigation, most of the workers at the Mystique stores knew that something fishy was going on, yet they were not aware that there were ways they could assert their rights until they got involved with RAP. RAP organizers directed them to the Attorney General’s office.
“We knew what was going on, but we didn’t think there was anything we could do about it,” said Carolina Ferreyra, former employee at Madness Boutique who typically worked for 10 hours per day, six days a week, and was never compensated for overtime. “We didn’t know that the law was on our side.”
Many workers like Ferreyra had suspected that they weren’t being paid properly, and when they met with RAP organizers they discovered that the company had been violating minimum wage and overtime laws for at least six years. Many workers have reported putting in 66-hour weeks without overtime pay and working for as little as $5.15 per hour, $2.10 below the federal and state minimum wage.
Sadiq Nukunu worked for the company for two years and said that he was paid a flat fee of $340 to work from opening to closing for six days a week—a total of 66 hours a week. That fee worked out to be less than the minimum wage, and he was never paid a dime in overtime. “There’s so much pressure in there that you feel like you have no choice, that you’ll never get a job anywhere else,” said Nukunu. “They make you feel like you should be grateful that they gave you a job, but they really are taking advantage of you.”
As if stealing from their workers wasn’t bad enough, many workers reported that Mystique management created a hostile work environment in which workers were afraid to speak up. Even worse, after David Cohen found out about the Attorney General’s investigation he began to intimidate workers through interrogations, firings and threats. He even attempted to bribe one worker with $50,000.
“David Cohen’s actions are a disgrace to all the law-abiding retail workers in New York,” said Phil Andrews, an organizer with RAP. “But today’s arrest proves that we are one step closer to achieving workers’ rights and living wages in New York City.”
About Mystique
Many security and stock workers at Mystique reported putting in 66-hour work weeks without overtime pay and working for as little as $5.15 per hour, $2.10 below the legal minimum wage. In other cases, particularly amongst sales staff, workers reported that they received hourly pay without being paid overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 hours. Workers also reported that the owners of Mystique terminated more than 30 workers who were suspected of having been involved in the organizing effort.
Mystique Boutique is a SoHo-based clothing retail chain with seven Manhattan locations currently employing approximately 90 sales, stock, cashier, and security workers. Their retail locations are as follows: Madness (#2), 305 Canal Street; Amsterdam Boutique, 365 Canal Street; Mystique, 412 Broadway; Amsterdam, 454 Broadway; Exstaza, 491 Broadway; Mystique 547 Broadway; Mystique, 324 5th Avenue.
About RAP
The Retail Action Project (RAP) is dedicated to building worker and community power to challenge injustices in the retail industry and ensure that retailers provide stable jobs with living wages, benefits and respect. RAP is a community-labor partnership of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU/UFCW) and Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES). For more information, visit http://www.retailactionproject.org and http://www.rwdsu.org.