Two longtime New York City sanitation workers have lost their jobs for accepting a small tip from a resident.
The city Conflicts of Interest Board fined the two men $2,000 each and retired them from the agency.
The two workers, Robert Bracone and Rene Torres, are accused of accepting $5 each on Dec. 12, 2011 from a Queens resident who left a huge amount of garbage at the curb.
According to the workers’ statements provided by the conflicts board, The New York Times says the men asked for $20. However, the resident said he had only $10. The two workers picked up the garbage and then collected the money.
The agency has a strict policy against accepting tips.
(AP)
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6 Responses
They asked for $20. Unforgivable!
Back in Chicago in the days of the first Mayor Daley, the unwritten rule was workers were allowed to accept bribes, they just weren’t allowed to ask for them.
Is it only because they asked for the money? Sometimes nice people (like me) offer them a tip because we feel bad for making them work extra hard.
I have had them refuse it, or ask me to put it into the truck or into their glove. Or I offer them ice cold water bottles. Someone I know gives them all his liquor before Pesach. It gets him good service all year long!
Sounds to me more like ASKING for a tip, which is considerably worse than merely accepting a tip.
If the money was solicited, it wasn’t a tip. This was a classic NYC shakedown. Sixty years ago it was common practice to keep a folded $20 bill in your wallet with your driver’s license. If you were stopped by a NYC cop for any type of driving violation, the twenty bucks was cheap protection from a more expensive ticket. The cops expected it. Everything was quite out in the open. Obviously it was the Queens resident who ratted them out.
What’s wrong with a few tips?
This was NOT a tip. This was a SHAKEDOWN. The Sanitation thugs DEMANDED that money from the citizen in order to take their trash.