Subway cleaners to get $3 million from NYCT in settlement

Hundreds of workers who cleaned the city’s subways during the pandemic’s height will share $3 million in back pay from two companies, according to a settlement secured by City Comptroller Brad Lander. Nearly 400 workers were not paid a prevailing wage by Valley Stream-based LN Pro Services and Fairfield, New Jersey-based Fleetwash, two contractors hired by the New York City Transit Authority to sanitize subways during the pandemic in 2020. 

Lander’s predecessor, Scott Stringer, determined in May 2020 that the workers were owed a prevailing wage of at least $20.38 an hour. Despite that finding, the NYCTA and the contractors it hired continued to pay the cleaners below the prevailing wage, arguing that the workers were not covered by prevailing wage laws.