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Published: April 19, 2008

Cleaners at three area malls will soon begin earning as much as $8,000 more a year under a new employment contract struck with Control Building Services, which provides cleaning services at the properties, according to the union representing the workers.

Under the four-year contract, cleaners at Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights, the Nanuet Mall and The Westchester in White Plains will begin earning $11 an hour May 1, said SEIU Local 32BJ, the nation's largest union representing workers in service occupations.

The contract would affect 57 workers in the three malls, which are owned by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc.

The agreement reached with Control Building Services of Secaucus, N.J., applies to most of Simon Property's 17 malls in five Eastern states, the union said.

For some New York workers, who earn the state's minimum wage - $7.15 an hour, the raise will result in an hourly increase of as much as 54 percent, or $3.85, Local 32BJ said.

Additionally, the contract provides workers with benefits including fully paid health care insurance for full-time employees, plus prescription-drug, vision, dental and life insurance.

The contract, which expires Dec. 31, 2011, brings the cleaners to parity with other service workers in the region in wages and , said union spokeswoman Lynsey Kryzwick.

The deal provides yearly wage increases of 50 cents an hour for the length of the contract.