National Maintenance Contractors Faces Another Lawsuit from Ex-Employees
National Maintenance Contractors, a janitorial firm with a long history with legal challenges, faces scrutiny this week after new claims are made. The NMC business model has come under fire in Oregon and Washington, especially after after a 2013 ruling by an administrative law judge—upheld in 2015 and 2017—found that NMC misclassified employees as franchisees.
REPORT: Cleaning Up Oregon’s Janitorial Industry
July 1, 2018, a new Oregon law will hold janitorial contractors and their customers responsible for fixing longstanding problems in the industry, including sexual harassment and assault, discrimination, and wage theft.
Let’s Talk about Good Jobs at Umpqua Bank Plaza
Umpqua Bank prides itself on being a community bank, responsive to the needs of the people it serves and open to hearing comments from customers and the public. But when their janitorial contractor at their headquarters, Umpqua Bank Plaza, decided to eliminate 7 good union jobs for janitors in their building, community members were shocked that Umpqua Bank failed to intervene to protect good jobs for the Portland community. Now, members of the Portland community are asking Umpqua Bank to be true to its values. Umpqua has program to allow customers to call their CEO from every bank “store” using a special phone. Janitors and supporters in Portland are calling…
Zeller Realty chose a company with a history of legal problems to clean Umpqua Bank Plaza
National Maintenance Contractors (NMC), the company Zeller Realty Group chose to clean Umpqua Bank Plaza, sells dubious franchises to janitors—reportedly often to immigrant workers with limited English proficiency—through contracts that charge thousands of dollars in fees for the right to service Zeller’s customer accounts. Recently, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that NMC must back pay the state approximately $138,000 in unemployment insurance taxes because these “franchisees” are legally employees. Findings in the case include: Franchisees (janitors) had to pay thousands of dollars to work for NMC. Some franchisees waited months for NMC to provide the work they had paid for. NMC deducted from franchisees’ income up to 51% of…
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