Our Keynote Speaker Today Will Be Thomas Frieden Who Will Speak On The Topic Of Raising Expectations To A Level Beyond One’s Control And Then Having To Manage Those Unrealistic Expectations

Now that they’ve taken care of trans fat and smoking, the Health Department now may be ready to take on labor issues:

Today, a piece of legislation is expected to be introduced in City Council that would give the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene more power to crack down on restaurants with labor violations. The bill was drafted with help from the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York — a workers’ rights group — and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

The bill would require restaurants to self-report any violations, which the health department would then list on its Web site. The bill would also give the department power to revoke restaurant licenses based on labor violations.

“The department of health has this already on the books in a sense — to get an operating permit you have to be in compliance with city, state and federal law,” said Rajani Adhikary, ROC-NY’s policy organizer. “We’re saying, the city has to step in, so restaurants will no longer be above the law.”

Health officials said they will review the legislation when it’s introduced.