Christmas Tree Salesmen Charge They Were Stiffed

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The New York Sun

State investigators are probing what competitors have described as the city’s largest sidewalk Christmas tree business after a former salesman filed a complaint alleging he and a partner weren’t paid for their work last holiday season.

The case may highlight the underside of an unregulated industry that likely generates millions of dollars each season.

Ulric Rousseau and Noemie Raiche, who together managed a SoHo tree stand for about a month, claim they were left on a sidewalk on Christmas Day waiting for a representative of the company, Forever Evergreen, to bring them thousands of dollars in wages.

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“I felt like I was in a Hollywood movie and this couldn’t be happening,” Mr. Rousseau, who is from Quebec, said. “When we told locals that we weren’t getting paid, they said: ‘Welcome to New York. You just got scammed.'”

Mr. Rousseau said he spent months attempting to collect the money he said he was owed by the owner of the company, Kevin Hammer. Eventually, he filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor.

An investigator based in the city is currently working the case, a spokesman for the labor department, Leo Rosales, confirmed. He said he couldn’t comment on details of the ongoing investigation.

Annual revenues from the sidewalk tree industry are difficult to determine because most of the businesses deal only in cash and are not required to get permits from the city. As long as a Christmas tree stand doesn’t obstruct pedestrian traffic, it only needs to receive permission from an abutting business to set up shop.

Prices of Christmas trees vary from stand to stand. A six-foot balsam fir costs between $60 and $90 at four separate stands on the Upper East Side. However, they can be much more expensive; An 11-foot noble fir at the stand at the Convent of the Sacred Heart school on Fifth Avenue sells for $440.

A Manhattan stand generates about $30,000 a season, and with wholesale trees costing less than $10 apiece, the business is extremely profitable, a downtown tree stand manager who asked not to be identified said.

Mr. Rousseau, 30, and Ms. Raiche, 31, who both had worked for Mr. Hammer in the past, were told they would be paid on Christmas Eve, they said.

Ms. Raiche waited up the entire evening, and it wasn’t until the day after they had made calls to supervisors asking for their pay that Mr. Hammer contacted them, they said. He informed Mr. Rousseau that the two would not be reimbursed for running the 24-hour a day stand because they had stolen money, both said.

Both salesmen say the embezzlement allegations are untrue, and the reason they weren’t paid was because Mr. Hammer discovered that Mr. Rousseau had spoken to a reporter about the details of his business.

“After Hammer told us we weren’t getting paid, I got a text message from my supervisor that said: ‘Apparently you steal and talk too much. Chicken fingers and cognac are not a good combination,'” Mr. Rousseau, who claims he saved the text message, said. In an article last December in The New York Sun, Mr. Rousseau, who was identified only as a source, was described as being interviewed over chicken fingers and cognac.

Mr. Hammer, who said he thinks he received a letter from the labor department regarding the case, contends that the allegations are false and that Mr. Rousseau is trying to extort money from him.

“Nothing he says has any resemblance of reality,” Mr. Hammer said. “I’ve been here for a long time and never had a problem.”

An associate of Mr. Hammer, who identified herself only as Penny, said Mr. Rousseau was fairly paid. Former employees and competitors have described Mr. Hammer’s business as one that brings in at least $1 million a year.

Mr. Hammer claims that the size of his business is blown out of proportion.

“I don’t run close to the number of stands people claim I do,” Mr. Hammer said. “There are other people who run as many or more.”

Mr. Rousseau contends that every penny of the more than $30,000 his stand grossed last year was collected by Mr. Hammer’s associates. He believes he and Ms. Raiche are owed at least $3,500 each. Ms. Raiche said it’s not about the money.

“I’m sure we’re not the first and I’m sure we won’t be the last. You just don’t know where the other ones are,” she said.


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