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The subcontracting chain and the statute that reaches up it, what each task does to the body, the respiratory claim nobody files, and the wage distortions specific to this work.
In thirty seconds
- Demand the route sheets and the square-footage-per-cleaner assignment. Researchers identified the 50,000-to-60,000-square-foot workload as a work-organization hazard driving musculoskeletal injuries — it is the janitorial equivalent of a warehouse quota.
- A client employer shares all liability with its labor contractor for wages and for failure to secure workers’ compensation coverage. Any waiver is void. Plead every tier.
- Quaternary ammonium compounds — “quats” — are a well-documented cause of occupational asthma. Janitors have among the highest occupational asthma rates of any occupation in the United States. Almost none of it is filed in California.
The subcontracting chain, and § 2810.3
LABOR CODE § 2810.3
A client employer that obtains workers from a labor contractor to perform work within its usual course of business shares all civil legal responsibility and liability with that contractor for the payment of wages and for failure to secure valid workers’ compensation coverage. That duty cannot be shifted by contract. Any waiver is void as against public policy.
There are exemptions — notably businesses with fewer than 25 workers, or five or fewer supplied at a given time — and the worker must give the client employer 30 days’ notice before bringing a civil action. Plead every tier. And support it with a common-law joint employment theory, because the building typically controls the schedule, the scope, and the access.
Check the state registry too. Under the Property Service Workers Protection Act, janitorial employers must register annually with the state, and it is unlawful to contract with an unregistered janitorial employer. An unregistered employer is almost certainly uninsured — and it is powerful evidence of an operation that disregards its obligations generally. The same law requires biennial in-person sexual violence and harassment prevention training for janitorial employees and supervisors.
What the work does
TASK · THE MOTION · WHAT IT BECOMES
Vacuuming
Repeated forceful push and pull with sustained shoulder elevation and trunk rotation; backpack units add 10–15 lbs of load
Rotator cuff, lumbar disc disease, cervical, tennis elbow
Mopping and auto-scrubbing
Repetitive two-arm and trunk rotation, wringer operation, pushing heavy machines
Shoulder impingement, lumbar strain and herniation, wrist
Trash collection
Hundreds of bend-lift-twist cycles a night, hauling bags overhead into dumpsters
Lumbar herniation — the most common janitorial cumulative trauma — plus shoulder and cervical
Restroom cleaning
Kneeling and squatting, forceful scrubbing with the wrist bent, overhead mirror and partition work
Knee — patellofemoral pain, meniscal tears, bursitis — plus wrist and shoulder
Floor stripping and waxing
Prolonged forward bending, pushing buffers that torque unpredictably
Lumbar, shoulder, wrist
THE CLAIM NOBODY FILES
Quaternary ammonium compounds — “quats” — are a well-documented cause of occupational asthma and reactive airway disease. Add bleach, ammonia, glycol ethers, floor stripper, and aerosolized disinfectant. If you developed asthma, chronic sinus problems, or persistent skin conditions after years of this work, that is a claim.
AND THE NIGHT SHIFT
Most commercial janitorial runs six to two, or ten to six. Circadian disruption, chronic sleep debt, and elevated crash risk on the drive home — where the going-and-coming exceptions can apply if your employer required a vehicle for a multi-building route. It also means working alone, which is the exposure the harassment training law was written to address.
Acute: slips on wet floors including your own mopping; falls from ladders and stairs while carrying equipment; needlestick and sharps injuries from restroom and medical-office waste, with the disease exposure and the psychiatric claim that follows; lacerations from broken glass in trash bags; assault in empty buildings and parking structures at two in the morning; and chemical burns and inhalation injury from mixing incompatible cleaners.
Getting your rate right
Split shifts and multiple buildings on one route defeat the simple wage formula. A second cleaning job is extremely common and those earnings aggregate. Some subcontractors pay per building or per square foot rather than hourly, which takes you into the earning-capacity rules. Night differentials count. Union scale and scheduled increases count.
ONE RECURRING DISTORTION
Husband-and-wife cleaning teams paid on one check. Your individual earning capacity has to be established separately, or your benefits are halved.
IF YOU WERE TOLD YOU ARE AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR CLEANER
Cleaning is a janitorial contractor’s core business, which means that classification fails California’s test.
Frequently asked questions
My employer is a small company that disappeared.
The building, the property manager, and the master contractor may all be reachable, and that liability cannot be contracted away.
I clean 50,000 square feet a night.
That is a documented industry workload problem and it is evidence in your claim. Get the route sheet.
I got stuck with a needle.
That is a compensable injury, the exposure workup is covered, and the psychiatric consequences of a serious exposure can be compensable too.
The chemicals make me wheeze.
Occupational asthma from cleaning products is real, well documented, and almost never claimed. Raise it.
I’m undocumented.
Immigration status does not affect eligibility, and retaliation on that basis is unlawful.
I work two cleaning jobs.
Both sets of earnings count toward your benefit rate.
Sources
Labor Code § 2810.3Property Service Workers Protection Act (Labor Code § 1420 et seq.)§ 3357§ 3351.
General information about California law, not legal advice about your case.
Reviewed by Jamey Teitell, Partner & Trial Attorney · Last reviewed
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC · (213) 380-9310
Printed from https://www.solovteitell.com/industries/janitorial-workers/ · Last reviewed