The New York City comptroller’s office has reached a $3 million settlement to pay back wages to approximately 450 mostly immigrant workers who cleaned the city’s subways during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[T]he Comptroller’s Office proudly and successfully recovered millions of dollars on behalf of the hundreds of subway cleaners who performed a vital service and risked their own health at the height of the pandemic,” Comptroller Brad Lander said in a statement. “Without these cleaners sanitizing and keeping our train system from piling up with debris, New York City would have had a much harder time getting moving again five years ago.”
During the pandemic, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) contracted with LN Pro Services, LLC and Fleetwash to clean the subways. NYCTA told the companies that the workers were not subject to prevailing wage requirements even though the comptroller’s office had said they were, according to the comptroller’s office.
NYCTA will cover all of LN Pro’s settlement and 80 percent of Fleetwash’s settlement.
New York labor law requires that prevailing wages, which are set and enforced by the city comptroller, and supplemental benefits be paid to building service employees on public contracts. Prevailing wages refer to the “wage and benefit rates that apply to construction and building service work performed on New York City government-funded work sites and building service work on certain properties,” according to the City Comptroller’s website.
The New York Times reported that the cleaners were paid $16 to $18 an hour on average, without supplemental benefits, several dollars less than the prevailing wage at the time of about $20 an hour. Earlier this year, the New York attorney general’s office secured more than a million dollars in backpay for approximately 250 workers in a separate wage theft case stemming from the pandemic.
Susana Baez, who cleaned New York City’s subways during the pandemic, told the Times that her time as a cleaner was traumatic. “While working as a cleaner, she was also dealing with cervical cancer, and the fear of catching COVID-19 was constant, she said,” the Times reported.
During New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, Lander spoke about the workers at a debate, and said Andrew Cuomo “cheated” the immigrant workers out of fair wages.
This prompted Cuomo to heinously dismiss the workers as “illegal immigrants,” without evidence. Cuomo was governor of New York at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“What did you call them?” Lander asked in disbelief.
“If anyone was undocumented, or they didn’t pay the proper wages, I had nothing to do with it,” Cuomo replied, to laughter from the audience.
“You didn’t pay them the proper wages,” Lander fired back. “You cheated them out of the prevailing wages they were due and the healthcare they were due.”
Cuomo has faced criticism from opponents like Lander for his handling of New York’s public transportation system. As governor, Cuomo redirected transit funds to state-run ski resorts and cut millions of dollars from the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the New York City subway and bus system. Despite a crushing defeat to Zohran Mamdani — who Lander is campaigning for — Cuomo has announced he is running for mayor as an independent.
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