The M&T Pretzel Company, which employs dozens of food vendors in Central Park, has agreed to compensate 50 vendors, many of them from Bangladesh, to the tune of $450,000. Each vendor stands to receive $10,000. The State Attorney General’s Office took the initiative to conduct an investigation into the matter of exploitation and repression of the vendors. Finding the vendors’ allegations to be true, M&T agreed to negotiate a settlement.

In a press conference held on November 23rd, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer disclosed the details of the settlement to a group, which included several Bangladeshi vendors. According to the attorney general, many vendors in Central Park work over 40 hours a week but get no overtime pay, as mandated by New York State law. This is unjust. Everyone has to obey this law.

He said, from now on, his office will keep watch to make certain vendors get paid their due. Vendors who work for M&T Pretzel must immediately contact the New York State Attorney General Office at 120 Broadway, 26th floor, New York, N.Y., 10271, where they can fill out a form to make their demands.

Former Bangladeshi vendor Kazi Rahman, who was present at the press conference, thanked the attorney general and said that justice has been served and that many people would benefit from this settlement.

The announcement of the settlement is an emotional matter for the vendors. Bangladeshi vendors would work over 12 hours a day, ignoring the winter cold, the summer heat and the rain, and still get only $60 per day, an inhumane situation, at best.

M&T owner Themistoklis Makkos, an immigrant from Greece, is a multimillionaire who has been exploiting the very people who have made him a rich man.