Victory! Comptroller Lander Recoups $3 Million for COVID-19 Subway Cleaners

New York, NY— In a groundbreaking prevailing wage agreement, the New York City Comptroller’s Office reached a $3 million settlement with LN Pro Services, LLC and Fleetwash, Inc. to pay back wages for subway cleaners hired to clean and disinfect subways during the COVID-19 pandemic. LN Pro Services, LLC’s settlement totals $2,400,000; Fleetwash, Inc.’s settlement totals $606,686.80. Under these settlements, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), a part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), will cover 100% of LN Pro’s settlement and 80% of Fleetwash’s settlement. These most recent settlements bring the total collected under New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s term to over $15 million.  

Comptroller Lander released the following statement: 

“By reaching this long-overdue settlement, the 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. The court agreed with us that the workers were entitled to prevailing wages – a higher rate than what the NYCTA instructed its contractors to pay. 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.” 

In November 2024, the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) ruled that NYCTA’s contracts covering hundreds of workers who cleaned subway cars during the COVID-19 pandemic were subject to prevailing wage requirements. OATH found that the work of cleaning and disinfecting subway cars qualifies as “building service work” under Article 9 of the New York Labor Law. In doing so, the Administrative Law Judge Kevin F. Casey rejected NYCTA’s arguments and agreed with the Comptroller that these subway cleaners “performed an essential public service” during the pandemic. The parties ultimately reached a total settlement of $3 million covering both contractors.  

During the height of the pandemic, NYCTA entered into contracts with private cleaning services to conduct deep cleaning and disinfecting work of subway cars within subway stations. The Office of the Comptroller sued two of the companies, Fleetwash, Inc. and LN Pro Services, LLC, in February 2024 after the conclusion of a multi-year prevailing wage investigation. Despite the Comptroller’s Office informing the MTA NYCTA that cleaning subway cars required prevailing wages, the agency disagreed and continued to instruct the contractors that the work was not subject to prevailing wage requirements, arguing that even though the subway cars were cleaned while they were in the stations, it did not qualify as building service work. While NYCTA contracts required prevailing wages for cleaners in the removal of trash and maintenance of cleanliness at subway stations, the requirement to pay prevailing wage rates was not included in the COVID contracts for the cleaning and disinfecting of train cars parked at terminal stations.  

Under the New York Labor Law, the New York City Comptroller sets and enforces prevailing wage laws for public works projects and City-owned properties in the City of New York. The New York Labor Law requires that prevailing wages and supplemental benefits be paid to building service employees on public contracts. 

Agency Attorney Emily Chang and Supervising Attorney Amy Luo handled the litigation in this matter. Investigators Cordie McCann and Rudolpho Donawa conducted the investigations under the supervision of Jose Quiroz, Deputy Director of Investigations and Francisco Gonazlez, Director of Investigations. Auditors Ilona Stadnicka, Yevgeniya Braylovskaya, and Xiaoyue Lin performed the audits of underpayment under the supervision of Director of Audit Stuart Rimmer. The Bureau of Labor Law is overseen by Claudia Henriquez, Director of Workers’ Rights. The Comptroller’s Office of the General Counsel assisted: Ronald Joshua Bliss, Deputy General Counsel; Lauren Jacobson, First Deputy General Counsel; and Justina Rivera, General Counsel. 

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