Chicago Window Cleaner Critical - Sydney Window Cleaner Stable

The man, whose age was not immediately available, fell from a chair while cleaning windows about 8 a.m. on the sixth floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the 200 block of East Huron.

Window Washer Critically Injured After 6-Story Fall From Northwestern Memorial Hospital: A window washer was critically injured after falling six stories from a Chicago hospital building Wednesday morning. Police said the man fell from the sixth floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the 200 block of Huron Street around 8 a.m. The hospital's Galter Pavilion was seen blocked off with police tape.

The man was taken into the hospital for treatment and was listed in critical condition, officials said.

"Given the situation and location of the incident, several Northwestern Medicine medical professionals nearby responded to provide on-site emergency care," the hospital said in a statement. "The individual was transferred to the emergency department and is currently being evaluated by staff."

He broke two legs and has internal injuries, but is expected to be OK. "I think the net or something like that broke down and he fell. He broke his legs and everything," a witness said. Northwestern Memorial Hospital staff rushed out of the building and brought the window washer into the emergency room. "I know he's in surgery but that's all I know right now," Carlos Perez, SEIU Local 1, said.

The window washer works for Corporate Clearning Services. The company says the man fell while working from a chair to clean windows at the hospital. They noted that this is "the first incident of its kind in the company's 21-year history." There have been reports of citations by OSHA for "minor violations five years ago" but the company says "neither violation was related to any incident with an employee."

"This is one of our most experienced and dedicated employees and we are focused on providing assistance to him and his family as he undergoes various medical tests and procedures," the company said in a statement. "We are also working closely with investigators so that we can better understand exactly how this happened and to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” The Service Employees International Union said the worker was a member of the union.

"Chicago’s window washers risk their lives every day as they step over the edge of our city's skyscrapers," the union said in a statement. "We pray for this worker's speedy recovery.”

The cause of the fall was not immediately known. Chicago Police are investigating the incident.

A hospital spokeswoman said the injured man was in a stable condition in hospital on Thursday morning.

Window cleaner falls from Apple Store on George Street: A window cleaner was seriously injured when he fell three storeys from the Apple Store in Sydney's CBD and struck a bus shelter before landing on the ground. The man, believed to be aged in his 40s, was taken to St Vincent's Hospital with injuries to his pelvis, spine and head after the accident on George Street about 8.30pm on Wednesday. A hospital spokeswoman said the injured man was in a stable condition in hospital on Thursday morning.

The man was believed to be one of three window cleaners working on the Apple Store's glass facade when he plummeted to the ground while preparing to abseil down the building. The man struck the top of the bus shelter, located in front of the Apple Store, before landing on the footpath. Witnesses said his cleaning equipment, including a bucket and a rope, was scattered around him.

Several people were believed to be standing in the bus shelter when the cleaner struck the roof. They were not injured. A WorkCover NSW spokeswoman said an inspector would be sent to examine the scene of the incident. She said the man was believed to have been using an abseiling device when he fell about three metres.

Apple released a statement saying the organisation was "shocked to learn of the accident last night involving a contractor cleaning the windows of our Sydney retail store". "We're doing everything we can to make sure he has the best care possible to help him make a full recovery," the statement said.

"Health and safety is our top priority for everyone who works and shops in our stores, so we're conducting a full investigation aimed at preventing any future accidents like this." Police taped off a section of the footpath outside the Apple Store and traffic was diverted while paramedics treated the man.

The man fell three storeys at the flagship George Street store.

Minimum Wage For Chicago Window Washers

Carlos Perez, center, a lead organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 1, leads chants with window washers and their supporters during a rally for better wages June 29, 2015, in Chicago. Window washers "overwhelmingly" ratified a three-year labor contract July 22, 2015, that includes a pay raise.

Window washers ratify 3-year agreement: Window washers "overwhelmingly" ratified a three-year labor contract that would raise wages by up to 16 percent over the life of the agreement, the union said Wednesday. "It's a good step but it's not the end," said Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1.

Balanoff said the agreement, which covers 235 window washers, was reached last week and averted a strike. The union negotiated with Corporate Cleaning Services and seven other companies that bargained together in a coalition.

The workers, who now make from $11.15 to $17.65 per hour, will earn as much as $20.50 by the end of the contract, Balanoff said. The contract also calls for employers to pay 60 percent of health care insurance premiums, rather than a set amount, meaning companies will share cost increases with workers.

Despite those wins, a point system workers sought to end was expanded and could be used by all eight companies. Under the system, a worker gets a set amount of points, or hours, to clean a building's windows. If the window washers finish the work early, the company pays them commission. But if they work beyond the time allowed, they don't get any additional pay. Workers felt the system forced them to rush and take shortcuts, often at the expense of safety.

Window washer Cruz Guzman, 24, said the expansion of the system is disappointing, but the new contract contains language that keeps companies from lowering points and protects workers who chose to work on an hourly rate, rather than the point system. It also establishes seniority rights to protect older workers. Guzman said he sees the contract as a foundation. "We have a lot more to work on," he said.

Neal S. Zucker, chief executive of Corporate Cleaning Services, said in a statement that he believes the agreement is fair. "As Chicago's largest, all-union window-washing company, Corporate Cleaning Services is proud to have led negotiations on behalf of not only our employees, but for all window washers in Chicago," Zucker said.

More than 200 Chicago area window washers working both for Corporate Cleaning Services and for a Coalition of other major window washing contractors (“Coalition”) ratified a history making agreement on July 19.  The contract includes significant gains in pay, safety improvements, and protection of health care benefits. The window washers, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1, and both Corporate Cleaning Services and the Coalition reached a unified agreement after contentious negotiations. Negotiations with Corporate Cleaning Services concluded ahead of the Coalition with the major employer leading the way and doing the right thing for Chicago’s working families. “We’re pleased we concluded bargaining with Corporate Cleaning Services as well as the Coalition,” said SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff.  “We are glad that Corporate Cleaning Service led the way for the other contractors by stepping up, giving significant raises to their employees and most importantly doing the right thing for Chicago’s working families.  

Our unified agreement with Corporate Cleaning Services and the Coalition will allow the window washers to provide a better future for their families and help raise America with good jobs.” Chicago’s window washers step over the edge of skyscrapers like the Trump Tower, Willis Tower, and the Hancock building and risk their lives to help billion dollar corporations, yet struggle to make ends meet for their families. Low wages stunt the growth of our economy: families can’t afford basic necessities, let alone go to the doctor or save for their children’s education. Window washing is a family industry in Chicago; generations of workers have been providing our city with an essential service. Window washers will continue to fight for a better future not only for their families, but for the entire middle class.

City of Chicago Minimum Wage - Minimum Wage Ordinance: On December 2nd, 2014, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance that will raise the minimum wage for Chicago workers to $13 per hour by 2019. This measure, sponsored by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Alderman Will Burns, Alderman Pat O’Connor, and 31 other aldermen, will increase the earnings for approximately 410,000 Chicago workers, inject $860 million into the local economy, and lift 70,000 workers out of poverty.

In 2015, the City will begin phasing in its new minimum wage, as provided by the ordinance. This phase-in will help simplify the early years of implementation for businesses and employers. The City's ordinance raises the hourly minimum wage to $10 in 2015, $10.50 in 2016, $11 in 2017, $12 in 2018, and $13 in 2019, indexed annually to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) after 2019.

On September 2, 2014, Mayor Emanuel signed an Executive Order requiring all City of Chicago contractors and subcontractors pay their employees a minimum of $13 per hour for work performed under a City contract. On September 30, 2014, the Mayor requested that all City of Chicago sister agencies follow suit.

Chicago Window Washers Push For Higher Wages

Window washers announced they would hold a protest outside the Trump Tower on North Wabash Avenue, saying they risk their lives doing their jobs and deserve better pay.

Breaking Business - Window washers push for higher wages: Chicago window washers to rally outside Trump Tower. Dozens of window washers and supporters rallied outside Trump Tower on Monday, a day before a labor contract is set to expire. "Who we are? Window washers," the protesters yelled, most of them clad in navy blue pants and shirts. They slowly walked from North Wabash Avenue to LaSalle Street along Wacker Drive, pumping yellow flags along the way and chanting, "No contract, no peace."

The workers, mostly men making between $11.15 and $17.65 per hour, are prepared to strike if a new three-year agreement is not reached, said Izabela Miltko, a spokeswoman with Service Employees International Union Local 1, which represents 235 window washers.

In a statement, Neal S. Zucker, chief executive of Corporate Cleaning Services, said the company has an excellent safety record and its workers are the "highest paid" in the industry. Stagnant wages have helped hold down inflation over the last 6-7 years. Now more and more workers are demanding wage increases. this is part of a trend that eventually will end the current period of low inflation.

Among sticking points are wages and health insurance. The union wants to close the gap between Chicago and New York, where window washers start at about $20 per hour and employers pay for health insurance premiums, Miltko said. More than half of workers can't afford health insurance in Chicago, Miltko added.

Cruz Guzman, 24, said that under the current contract, workers pay 40 percent of health insurance premiums. The cost is so high, Cruz said, that when the season ramps up in March, he owes his employer up to two pay checks for the months in which he didn't make enough to cover his share of the cost.

Guzman said he works for Corporate Cleaning Services, which pays workers on a point system, rather than by the hour. For example, Guzman said that workers get 100 points, or 100 hours, to clean a building. The company would pay them commission if they finish with extra points, but if it takes them longer to clean, they work without pay until they are done, Guzman said.

Workers, he said, want an end to the point system because they feel it forces them to rush and take shortcuts, often at the expense of safety. It also disproportionately hurts older workers, who can't move as fast, Guzman said. "We are not machines; we are not numbers; we are fathers of families," said Guzman, whose father and uncles are also window washers.

Zucker said the point system results in an effective pay rate of $29.42 per hour. He said employees have the opportunity to switch to an hourly pay rate three times a year. All of his employees declined that offer in May. "We have always believed in treating our workers fairly and ensuring they are well-compensated for the dangerous work that they do," Zucker said. The union is negotiating with Corporate Cleaning Services and seven other companies that bargain together in a coalition.

Outside the City Club of Chicago luncheon, before Trump spoke, a crowd of protesters chanted, “Trump is a racist” and cited as hate speech the real-estate mogul’s controversial remarks last week describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists” who bring drugs and crime with them.

Later Monday afternoon, window washers announced they would hold a protest outside the Trump Tower on North Wabash Avenue, saying they risk their lives doing their jobs and deserve better pay.

Earlier this month, in Trump’s speech announcing a run for president, he deplored immigrants from Mexico who “have lots of problems” and are “bringing those problems to us.” “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” he said, adding, “and some, I assume, are good people.” Trump went on Fox News on Thursday to say, “Of course I’m standing by the statement.” He added, “I love Mexico, I love the Mexican people.”

Commission Or Piece-Rate?

The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Overtime pay at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek.

Commission or piece-rate? The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires employers to pay employees at one-and-a-half times their hourly rate for every hour that they worked per week in excess of 40 hours. There are exceptions, though, and an Illinois federal court recently handed down a decision which illustrates one of them: Employees that are paid commissions on goods or services sold are exempt from overtime pay – if certain criteria are met – whereas employees who are paid piece-rate are not.

At first blush, the distinction is not an easy one to make. In both cases, the employee’s compensation appears to depend on his or her output. The former is not earned, however, until a sale is actually made. That’s the rub, and it was demonstrated in Alvarado v. Corporate Cleaning Services.  There, a group of window washers sued their employer for violating the FLSA. They claimed that they were paid piece-rate for their work – effectively for the number of windows that they washed. But the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois disagreed. It explained:

Here, the abundance of window-washer work at CCS does tend to obscure that window-washer pay is still dependent on sales.  But the only reason that there is a regular workflow is because CCS is such a big player in the industry and is extremely successful.  Part of this success is based on the company’s compensation system, which incentivizes window washers to work efficiently and, in turn, to increase the number of sales that CCS can make and complete.  Thus window washers’ work is still dependent on sales.

If you’re an employer that pays by commission ask yourself whether your employees earn their “commissions” for each item made or service performed or whether their “commissions” depend upon a sale. The distinction is an important one, and it may allow you to take advantage of the Alvarado exemption.

Affirming Dismissal, Seventh Circuit Holds Window Washing Business Is a “Service” Establishment and Its Employees Are Paid on a “Commission” Basis, Bringing Clarity to Application of 7(i) and Sharply Criticizing DOL Regulations and Its Application of 7(i)

In one of the most comprehensive circuit court opinions to address application of Section 207(i) of the FLSA—the provision of the law that allows employers to comply with the overtime provisions of the FLSA by paying commissioned employees of a retail or service establishment at least 1.5 times the minimum wage, instead of their regular hourly rate—the Seventh Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Posner, has clarified this section which recently been the subject of increasing litigation in the federal courts. Alvarado v. Corporate Cleaning Servs., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 5270 (7th Cir. Apr. 1, 2015).

The Court directly addresses two of the core requirements in applying 7(i): (1) what is a “commission” for purposes of 7(i); and, (2) what types of establishments constitute a “retail or service establishment.” In doing so, the Court rejects DOL regulations, noting the DOL (who submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the employees) has, in its interpretation of 7(i), become “obsessed with its incomplete, arbitrary and essentially mindless catalog of sellers lacking a ‘retail concept.’” The Court also criticizes the Plaintiffs’ attorneys for seeking a voluntary dismissal to avoid an adverse ruling on appeal, with the Court refusing to dismiss the case even though the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal. For these reasons, the opinion is a “must-read” for anyone considering FLSA compliance through application of 7(i).

Plaintiffs in Alvarado were window washers. They were paid using a point system, where each job was assigned a certain number of points, which were then multiplied by a rate to determine their pay. Points were assigned based on the complexity of the task and the number of hours the job was expected to take. Plaintiffs were not paid overtime wages at 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for the hours they worked in excess of forty hours per week.

Plaintiffs argued Section 7(i) did not apply because they were paid on a piece-rate system, not a commission basis, and that the defendant’s business was not a “retail or service establishment” because it lacked a “retail concept.” The Seventh Circuit disagreed. Addressing first the commission versus piece-rate conundrum, Judge Posner explained that “nomenclature is not determinative” and that word “commission” need not be used for 7(i) to apply. He then rejected the dueling tests urged by the parties (and the DOL)—i.e., whether the compensation bore an “identifiable and consistent correlation” to the price charged to the customer (Plaintiffs’ test) or whether the compensation was “proportional and correlated” to the price (Defendants’ test). Instead, he explained, the distinction between the two compensation schemes is much simpler: in a piece-rate system, “a worker is paid by the item produced” regardless if there has been an actual sale; whereas in a “commission system,” the worker is paid a specified amount only when there has been a “sale.” An employee working in a piece rate system, for example, is paid for producing goods for inventory for potential future sales (which are not guaranteed) but for a commissioned employee, they are only paid if there has been a sale.

The Court also noted that typically commissioned employees work irregular hours—which was consistent with the work performed by the window washers, who worked fewer hours in the winter and during inclement weather. And that is consistent with the purposes of 7(i), which was to level the compensation for those who work irregular hours.

Turning to the second issue—whether the defendant operated a “retail or service establishment”—the Court explained that a “service establishment” is “much broader” than a “retail establishment” and noting that the statute applies to “retail establishment” or a “service establishment,” in the disjunctive, and does not require the “service establishment” to be a “retail service establishment.” The Court concluded the window washing services provided by the defendant was a service. But even if that were not enough (the Court held it was), the defendant was a “retail service establishment” too because it was not a wholesaler and provided a service to the ultimate consumer (again, a simple and straight forward standard readily interpreted and applied). It did not matter that the window-washing service was sold primarily to commercial and governmental buildings or that the building owners passed on the cost to the tenants.

The Court rejected the DOL’s decades-old regulatory list of establishments that “lack a retail concept,” finding the list provides “no explanation for the choice of which firms to describe as lacking a retail concept,” and describing it as a “mindless catalog” that is “arbitrary”. Finally, the Court distinguished cases applying the defunct 13(a)(2) exemption, which contained the term “retail or service establishment” (and a definition of it), finding that it bore no connection to Section 7(i), a provision enacted for a different purpose than the 13(a)(2) exemption (now repealed), which applied to intrastate employers.

This decision brings needed clarity to employers seeking to apply Section 7(i) to their workforce.

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