NEW YORK — According to, the Association of Car Wash Owners has dropped its lawsuit against the de Blasio administration to stop the city’s 2015 Car Wash Accountability Law, which requires nonunion businesses by surety bonds five times larger than unionized ones.

The decision came after an appeals court ruling in late 2018 that upheld the labor-backed statute requiring all carwashes to buy insurance to cover worker abuse and wage theft settlements, the article continued.

“We are pleased that plaintiffs have chosen to discontinue their challenge to a law intended to guarantee full and timely payment of wages earned by hardworking car-wash employees,” said a Law Department spokesman.

The association’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the article stated.

The association claimed that the law illegally forced carwashes to accept a collective bargaining agreement, the article noted, but the appellate division dismissed this claim.

A lower court originally agreed with the association in 2017 while also upholding the idea of the statute that carwashes must maintain policies to cover their exposure to labor lawsuits, the article added.

The association called the law an overreaction to a few bad examples in the industry, where carwash owners were found to have underpaid workers, the article continued.

Surety bonds ensure that employees who win wage-theft cases will be able to collect back pay, even if the business shuts down and has no assets, the article noted.

Most carwashes in the city are not unionized, the article concluded.

Read the original article here.