UWS Raises Stink Over Delivery Workers' Restaurant Toilet Pass

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Delivery workers are getting no relief from Upper West Side community board members who are barring them from using restaurant bathrooms during pickups.

A suggestion that food deliverers be allowed access to the restrooms of eateries they serve was met with outrage by some members of Community Board 7 – one of which called the concept of giving them toilet privileges "just awful."

The outrage came after one member suggested a resolution that would force restaurants to give access, Streetsblog NYC first reported.

“I was horrified when I read this resolution,” said committee member Barbara Adler. "I would never vote on a resolution like this. I think it is terribly embarrassing to Community Board 7, this is nothing we ever want to get out there and have our name attached to. It's just awful."

Others members agreed with her, calling the suggestion "crazy" and "completely nuts."

Transportation Committee member Ken Coughlin had introduced the "Let Our Workers Go" resolution in a meeting on April 13. that included members of the Business Consumer Issues Committee of Community Board 7.

"They're risking their lives for us, literally, so we don't have to. So we can order in without having to go to a store or a restaurant, and I think they deserve better," Coughlin said. "I think we need to start treating them like their lives and their working conditions matter."

The resolution called for all Upper West Side district restaurants that use third-party delivery platforms to allow workers unrestricted use of the eateries' restroom facilities when picking up food.

The resolution went on to add that any restaurant that doesn't heed the resolution's push should be remembered for doing so when liquor license requests came before other committees on the board.

Coughlin barely finished his introduction before a collection of other Upper West Side Transportation Committee members lambasted the idea.

Committee members spoke about how restaurants only have one or two bathroom stalls, and the added traffic would cause more work for staff, which they would have to be compensated for.

Additionally, committee members disagreed with the idea of linking liquor license decisions to the issue of bathroom use and spoke about the need to consult with restaurant owners and third-party platforms like GrubHub and Seamless.

There was just one committee member who defended Coughlin, City Council candidate Sara Lind. "These workers are stuck without restrooms. We need to take a serious look at this," she said during the meeting.

Coughlin stayed relatively quiet during the evisceration of his resolution, but he looked dismayed and shook his head in front of his Beatles Abbey Road Zoom background.

"No, I thought that the resolution would sail through the committee and full board," Coughlin told Patch when asked if he expected the negative reaction his resolution received. "I was really shocked."

"I think it is only human decency to allow hard-working people to use the restroom," he added.

The issue of delivery workers getting to use the bathroom at Upper West Side restaurants when picking up food has been passed along to the Business Consumer Issues Committee of Community Board 7 after the Chair of the board decided it was more of a business issue than a transportation one, according to Coughlin.

The meeting ended with Coughlin agreeing to table the issue until local restaurant owners, representatives from third-party-delivery sites and delivery workers were brought in to speak about the topic.

Here's the full discussion about bathroom use for restaurant workers on the Upper West Side. It starts around the 56-minute mark.