Senate committee approves better-wage measure for janitors

BY GREGORY J. VOLPE

GANNETT STATE BUREAU

Published: December 2, 2005

TRENTON — The Senate Labor Committee approved a measure on Thursday that would double wages for private cleaning staff of state buildings.

The bill, S-2702, requires companies with contracts to clean, maintain or secure state buildings to pay prevailing wages. The Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ estimates that would help about 500 workers who make about $6.15 per hour.

Federal prevailing wage differs by county, ranging from $11.83 to $13.82 in New Jersey, and calls for $2.87 per hour worth of health benefits, vacation and holidays.

Estuardo Lopez, who came from Guatemala to Trenton two years ago, testified that he cleans the Department of Community Affairs building for $6.15 an hour with no sick days, vacation, health benefits or paid holidays. He said he and several colleagues have to work two jobs.

State Sen. Joseph Coniglio, D-Bergen, one of the bill's sponsors, said the cleaners advocated for the bill better than he could.

"I think you heard it stated very nicely," Coniglio said. "There's a lot of people out here that barely make the minimum wage."

The bill has no explicit grandfather clause, but Coniglio said it would not affect current contracts, only new ones. The measure would require wages to be adjusted annually to match the federally established prevailing wage.

Some said since then-Gov. Christie Whitman privatized state cleaning contracts, the state's bidding procedure has rewarded contractors who pay unfair wages.

"Contractors who do business responsibly by paying living wages and decent benefits can't compete for state work," Kevin Brown, district chairman of SEIU Local 32BJ, said. "They are immediately out of the running because they can't bid as low as a contractor who is paying minimum wages."

The state has about eight janitorial contracts worth between $3.5 million to $4 million per year for administration buildings, and about half of those costs are for labor, Treasury Department spokesman Tom Vincz said. That doesn't include contracts at state agencies, authorities and universities or for office buildings the state leases.

Steven Brown, president of Eastco Building Services, which has the Statehouse cleaning contract, said he didn't know what his workers are paid but that it is more than $6.15 an hour.

"I think that everybody has a right to earn a fair wage," Brown said. "And if the state puts this in effect, we'll abide by it."

The measure passed unanimously and heads to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. A similar measure in the Assembly, sponsored by Speaker-designate Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, awaits consideration by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.