Stop & Shop officials say LIC store is safe

Stop & Stop officials refuted accusations last week of letting employees at a Long Island City store work in hazardous conditions. Though seemingly cracked, the walls do not pose any harm to workers according to a spokesperson who claimed that the damage is merely superficial, not structural.
&#8220Stop & Shop and the owner of the building, First New York Partners, have been proactive in ensuring our Long Island City store is safe for our associates and customers. To that end, the building has undergone two separate inspections by structural engineers on May 31 and June 8. Both inspections determined the store is absolutely safe for occupancy and that no structural hazard exists. The owner is working with the city building department to obtain a permit to perform some cosmetic work on the building,” attested Robert Keane, a spokesperson for the company in a statement released to the media.
Stop & Shop representatives are scheduled to appear before the Department of Buildings on Tuesday, July 18 for a hearing on a violation received on May 30 for failure to maintain the building and leaving it in a hazardous state.
Fourteen workers who regularly spend the majority of their shift in the questionable area – four truck bays at the back of the store – will work in the front of the store until the damage is repaired, said Kelly Egan, safety director for the employees’ union, Local 342 of the United Food Commercial Workers.