Wage bill clears another hurdle

BY TOM HESTER JR.

Published: December 2, 2005

A bill that would boost the wages of service workers in state buildings cleared a Senate committee yesterday amid calls for better treatment of the people who clean state facilities.

A recent analysis by The Times of Trenton found janitors in the State House and other state buildings are paid about $6 to $6.50 per hour, with no health benefits. According to U.S. Department of Labor wage determination statistics, they should be earning $13.82 an hour as janitors in Mercer County.

The Senate Labor Committee voted 4-0 yesterday to approve a bill that would require such workers get paid a prevailing wage. The bill, which in June cleared an Assembly committee, now awaits consideration by budget panels in both houses.

Eduardo Lopez of Trenton told the committee, through an interpreter, that he makes $6.15 per hour, without health benefits, cleaning the Department of Community Affairs building. He told of a friend, Fausta Jeronimo, who gets paid $6.15 per hour cleaning the DCA building during the day and $6.50 per hour cleaning the State House at night, with neither job offering health benefits.

"This is clearly unjust," he said.

Prevailing wages, Lopez said, would "allow us to live decently, pay our bills, maintain our families, contribute to the local economy and help us to achieve the American dream."

Bill sponsor Sen. Joseph Coniglio, D-Paramus, said the bill would force contractors to pay fair wages.

"New Jersey should not be doing business with companies that inflate their profits by underpaying their employees," Coniglio said.

The bill has received heavy support from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and is backed in the Assembly by Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, who is Assembly majority leader and next year will be Assembly speaker.

The SEIU contends that a state law requiring contracts be awarded to the lowest bidder forces contractors to pay workers low wages with no benefits. The union claims this punishes contractors who pay higher wages.

"Government contractors should not undermine workplace standards in the private sector," SEIU Local 32BJ President Mike Fishman said.

SEIU Local 32BJ estimates the proposed law would help about 500 building service workers, most of them immigrant women.

State-owned and state-leased properties would be included in the bill. Annual wage adjustments would be required, and the state would have the authority to terminate any contract and hold a contractor liable should it fail to pay prevailing wages.

The prevailing wages would be established by annual figures computed under the federal Service Contract Act of 1965.

New Jersey would join New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and California as states with prevailing wage laws for building service workers.