Nonprofit CEO Makes $500K As Staff Relies On Food Stamps: Workers

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Runners who gathered in Prospect Park Saturday to raise funds for a Brooklyn nonprofit were met by a horde of striking employees who claim that their CEO earns $500,000-a-year while workers are forced to go on food stamps during parental leave.

CAMBA Legal Services staff have been on strike since Monday after the nonprofit, which provides free legal services for roughly 45,000 low-income New Yorkers with cases in housing court annually, refused to increase salary and provide paid leave for all new parents during contract negotiations, workers said.

The current contract only provides maternity leave coverage to birth mothers — not fathers, adoptive parents or step-parents — who are granted 13 weeks leave at 70 percent of the their usual salary, the workers said.

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Dafina Oruqi, a full-time CAMBA employee, said she had to go on food stamps after she gave birth to her first child, suffered from post-partum hemorrhage and lost 1.5 liters of blood.

“The doctors thought that I was going to die," Oruqi said. "I had no choice but to apply for Food Stamps to support my family. In addition, it was a struggle to pay my rent.”

The unionized workers have spent six months hoping to augment the nonprofit's compensation package which they argue is responsible for a "revolving door for attorneys." Nearly 25% of CAMBA attorneys have left the nonprofit because of problems with their paychecks and their benefits, workers said.

“Dozens have left during my time here,” said Paola Rodriguez, a law graduate at the Flatbush office. “They all had to leave for the same reasons: lack of competitive pay, lack of benefits, lack of care for their work-life balance, and poor training."

CAMBA spent $82 million on compensation for its 3,172 employees, which makes for an average annual salary of about $26,000 in 2017, according to tax documents filed to the Internal Revenue Service in 2018.

That same year, 15 key employees were paid more than $3.8 million in 2017 with CEO Joanne Oplustil taking home $503,090 annually, four executive vice presidents earning more than $300,000, five other high-ranking staff members earning more than $200,000 and five others earning more than $160,000, the tax documents show.

Idalia Bisbal, a case aide at the Staten Island office, said she's striking because her salary has stagnated for six years with CAMBA.

“My salary has not kept up with inflation,” said Bisbal. “Yet our CEO earns roughly twice as much as Governor Cuomo.”

Update: A CAMBA spokesperson responded to Patch's request for comment Monday with the following statement:

CAMBA has made offers that have not been accepted, including improvements to benefits and a very significant pay increase over three years that is more than the salaries currently offered by most of the other NYC legal services providers. In response, the union decided to walk away from the table and strike. We are saddened and disappointed because the real victims are our clients who are in desperate need of legal services. While the lawyers walk a picket line, our clients who are immigrants, refugees, low-income tenants and others who cannot afford private attorneys are stuck. CAMBA continues to remain open to continuing negotiations to resolve the issues that have brought about this strike.

Note: This reporter was one of the runners who paid $35 to participate in the New York City Runs Prospect Park 5K & 10K Benefiting CAMBA.