“This illegal scheme was a clear bait-and-switch, which effectively forced workers to shoulder Jan Pro’s business costs,” Racine said in a news release. “If any company steals their employee’s hard-earned wages and benefits, my office will hold them accountable.”
The investigation that led to the lawsuit — filed Wednesday in the civil division of D.C. Superior Court — is one of more than 75 conducted since the 2021 creation of the Workers’ Rights and Antifraud Section, Racine said. Those cases have included investigations into companies accused of withholding tips, alleged failures to implement coronavirus restrictions and alleged failures to pay minimum wage.
When reached for comment, Jan-Pro Franchising International’s general counsel said the company had not yet seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. Jan-Pro of Washington, D.C., also declined to comment at this time.
The lawsuit describes Jan-Pro Franchising International as a “franchising chain” that sells franchises to companies such as the Jan-Pro of Washington, D.C., thereby providing them with the “systems necessary to execute the business, including billing software infrastructure, as well as advertisements and template contracts to recruit prospective janitors.”
The arrangement, the lawsuit alleged, was meant to create “an arm’s-length dealing between two corporate entities.” But the office alleged the relationship was “at bottom, a garden-variety employment relationship between a janitorial services employer and its janitorial employees.”
Those janitors, Racine’s office claims, are misclassified as “independent contractors” when they really are “employees.” But as such, the company has “imposed a blizzard of fees” on their janitors that “unlawfully cut into their wages.” These fees put on janitors “eat up as much as 25% of their monthly earnings,” the complaint said.
These fees allegedly included a 5 percent “Management Fee,” a 4.5 percent “Business Protection Plan Fee” and a 2 percent “Assurance Fee,” the complaint said. Jan-Pro automatically deducted the fees from an employee’s wages. These deductions represent a violation of the law’s requirement that employers pay employees “all wages earned,” the lawsuit alleged.
Janitors were also allegedly hit with fines for performance-related issues. The lawsuit cites one instance in which an employee failed to wear a Jan-Pro uniform and failed to take time-stamped before-and-after photos of an area that was cleaned. The resulting fine was allegedly $75.
The attorney general also alleges further violations of D.C. employment law.
According to the complaint, Jan-Pro also allegedly failed to provide janitors with “itemized pay statements showing their hours worked during each pay period.”
The misclassification of Jan-Pro employees also left them without “any paid sick leave whatsoever,” the complaint said.
The attorney general’s lawsuit is seeking financial damages and statutory penalties, as well as an injunction forcing the company to stop the misclassification.
