LN Professional Providers, the contractor that employed Ms. Ochoa in Queens, disputed a number of staff’ claims. Lily Sierra, the chief government of the corporate, mentioned staff by no means lacked entry to loos and managers had been available to fetch lacking cleansing supplies and protecting provides. She mentioned new hires had been paid an hourly wage of $18 an hour; later, staff made extra.
Employees employed by different contractors have voiced related complaints, in response to Francisco Tecaxco, an organizer at New Immigrant Group Empowerment, or NICE, a staff’ rights group in Queens that gathered the accounts of two dozen folks employed by about 5 contractors and helped to arrange the assembly with the M.T.A. in February.
“Many individuals had been getting paid minimal wage or only a greenback or two extra,” Mr. Tecaxco mentioned. “The circumstances had been horrible.”
Ms. Muñoz, who cleaned trains on the Q line, earned $20 an hour. She introduced her personal masks, gloves and cleaning soap to wash her rags, she mentioned; her employer, NV Upkeep Providers, gave staff solely a material masks with out a filter, and gloves that simply burst, she mentioned.
Ms. Muñoz, who cleaned the workplaces of an structure agency earlier than the pandemic, mentioned the work was taxing and the principles had been strict. Employees had been let go for arriving minutes late, or for calling in sick, together with from Covid-19, she mentioned.
They had been ultimately advised to not drink drinks on the job so they’d not want to make use of the lavatory, and since the bottles cluttered the work area. “It was an oven in the summertime,” she mentioned. “We needed to sneak sips of water.”