Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is investigating claims involving janitors who performed commercial cleaning work through Jan-Pro of Washington and were classified as franchise owners or independent contractors.
What is the issue?
A worker can be called a franchise owner or independent business while still functioning in practice as an employee.
According to allegations previously brought by the D.C. Attorney General, Jan-Pro recruited District janitors to purchase cleaning franchises while Jan-Pro controlled important aspects of the work. The alleged practices included worker misclassification and deductions from compensation. Jan-Pro later entered a settlement addressing claims involving District cleaners.
The prior government matter may not resolve every potential claim for every worker, location, or period. This investigation seeks information from current and former Jan-Pro cleaners about franchise fees, deductions, cleaning assignments, hours, and take-home pay.
Janitors may have experienced:
- Paying an initial fee to obtain cleaning work.
- Being classified as a business owner despite personally performing all cleaning labor.
- Jan-Pro selecting the customer, building, schedule, or amount paid.
- Deductions for insurance, management, equipment, uniforms, supplies, complaints, or customer loss.
- Receiving less than minimum wage after expenses and deductions.
- No overtime despite working more than 40 hours.
- No paid sick and safe leave.
- Having an account or customer reassigned without meaningful control.
- Being required to follow detailed cleaning methods and inspection requirements.
- Financial penalties based on customer complaints.
- Being required to sign documents in a language the worker did not fully understand.
Signs you may be affected
- You performed janitorial or commercial cleaning services through Jan-Pro Washington.
- You were required to operate through a franchise, LLC, or other business entity even though the company controlled your day-to-day work.
- You were treated as an independent contractor or received a Form 1099 instead of being classified as an employee.
- You worked more than 40 hours in a week but did not receive overtime pay.
- You were required to pay franchise fees, insurance costs, equipment expenses, or other business expenses in order to continue working.
- You were denied employee benefits or legal protections because you were classified as an independent contractor.
The building owner or customer may also have contracted with Jan-Pro or another company higher in the service chain. Workers need not know every company involved before contacting counsel.
If you performed janitorial, cleaning, custodial, porter, floor-care, sanitation, trash-removal, building-attendant, maintenance-support, or other commercial cleaning work through Jan-Pro in Washington, D.C. and believe you were misclassified or subjected to unlawful fees or deductions, please contact Migliaccio & Rathod LLP through the form below, by email at [email protected], or by telephone at (202) 470-3520.