Stringer: Scrubs’ pay breaks N.Y. labor law

Private contractors hired by the MTA are breaking the law by underpaying their workers to deep-clean the subways, city Comptroller Scott Stringer alleged in a letter to the agency’s chairman Monday.

The letter was sent the same day the Daily News published a story documenting the low wages of the outside subway cleaners brought in to scrub the system of coronavirus. Many of the workers are immigrants earning as little as $18 an hour to disinfect trains and stations.

More than 20 workers who spoke with The News last week said they were not offered health insurance.

Under city and state labor laws, the cleaners are entitled to a prevailing wage of at least $27 an hour plus benefits, Stringer wrote. He said it was the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s responsibility to ensure the wages are baked into agreements with contractors.

“My staff has had the opportunity to review one of NYC Transit’s cleaning contracts, and it does not appear to require the payment of prevailing wages and benefits,” Stringer wrote. “These workers are risking their own health and that of their families to ensure that New Yorkers — especially our frontline workforce — can use our transit system safely.”

Stringer said the cleaners are entitled to retroactive pay to make up what they’ve been shorted, and called for Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Patrick Foye to ensure they’re offered health insurance.

The MTA was forced to hire the outside contractors after Gov. Cuomo ordered the subway to be closed every night from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. so the system could be thoroughly cleaned during the pandemic.

Cuomo gave the order on April 30, and the shutdowns began May 6.

The agency does not have enough inhouse workers to complete the job, and its workforce has been strained the past two months as roughly 9,000 transit employees have contracted COVID-19 or been directed to quarantine at home.

But transit officials on Monday took no responsibility for the low wages of the hastily hired workers.

MTA spokesman Ken Lovett said the agency “is committed to fair pay for all those who work in any capacity inside the NYC Transit system.”

Lovett said the federal government should approve hazard bonuses for the outside cleaners — but declined to explain how workers who may be undocumented immigrants would be eligible for the benefit.