Subway car cleaners during the pandemic were due prevailing wages, judge finds

100s of subcontractors were fleeced nearly $2 million, comptroller alleged

Hundreds of workers who deep cleaned and disinfected subway cars during the early months of the pandemic are entitled to prevailing wages, with two contractors who hired them potentially responsible for more $2 million in back pay and penalties, according to a finding by an administrative judge with the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. 

The decision is the outcome of a pair of lawsuits by city Comptroller Brad Lander, filed in February, alleging that the workers were together shorted hundreds of thousands of dollars. The MTA, which contracted with the two companies, disputed that contention from the outset and in a joint countersuit together with one of the companies.