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.”