NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The MTA is suing City Comptroller Brad Lander over the enforcement of higher wages for workers who cleaned the subways during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, the MTA hired contractors to clean and sanitize subway cars during shutdowns and overnight, aiming to maintain cleanliness across the subway system, according to court documents.
The previous Comptroller Scott Stringer argued that the cleaners were underpaid and should be making higher wages.
“I have determined that Labor Law Article Nine applies to the cleaning of trains as well as subway stations,” Stringer wrote in a letter to Patrick Foye, the former Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the MTA, according to court documents. “Subway trains are occupied by the public in the same way as buildings and cleaning the interiors of subway trains involves the same type of work as cleaning building interiors. Indeed, the workers that clean the trains do so while the trains are sitting in subway stations.”
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday argues that the cleaners were not eligible for higher wages saying that New York Labor Law “does not require the payment of prevailing wage and benefit rates to employees of contractors of NYCTA engaged in the work of cleaning and sanitizing subway train cars because such work is not 'construction-like labor' to come within the ambit of Article 8, nor is it 'building service work' as defined in Article 9 of the Labor Law.”
The Comptroller’s Office did not comment on the pending litigation but spokesperson Chloe Chik said, “We stand by the determination that the subway cleaners deserve fair wages for performing the vital service of keeping our train system from piling up debris. The previous comptroller administration held that workers who sanitize the cars are entitled to the prevailing wage of subway station cleaners, and this administration agrees.”