Alexandra Martinez Prism
A former overnight janitor says fear of losing her job and fear tied to her immigration status kept her from speaking out for years about the conditions she said she endured while cleaning WinCo Foods grocery stores.
María Isabel Ramírez is one of the workers whose experiences are at the center of a class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against WinCo Foods and its janitorial contractor, Tec Services. The lawsuit alleges that the companies systematically misclassified janitors as independent contractors, resulting in California labor law violations, including unpaid overtime, denied meal and rest breaks, and other wage-and-hour protections.
The legal action was announced during a July 22 press conference, organized by the California janitors’ watchdog group Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund (MCTF), where workers called for accountability.
“I was afraid they might report me to ICE,” Ramírez, an immigrant from Mexico, told Prism, “so I went along with whatever they asked me to do.”
The lawsuit follows an undercover Univision investigation into alleged labor abuses affecting subcontracted janitorial workers who cleaned WinCo stores overnight. The lawsuit seeks unpaid wages, overtime compensation, penalties under California labor laws, reimbursement for business expenses, and other damages. WinCo and Tec Services did not respond to Prism’s requests for comment.
“WinCo is committed to fair and lawful treatment of all workers at its stores and takes these matters seriously,” the company told Supermarket News. “As this is pending litigation, we are unable to comment on the specific allegations. WinCo intends to review the claims thoroughly and respond appropriately through the legal process.”
Allegations of misclassification
MCTF Executive Director Chloe Osmer told Prism that the nonprofit began investigating after workers in the Sacramento region reported possible wage theft and worker misclassification. Similar complaints soon surfaced in Southern California.
Founded in 1999, MCTF operates six offices throughout the state. Osmer said the organization’s 14 investigators are all former janitors, which enables them to build trust with workers who may be reluctant to report abuses. Investigators often conduct late-night outreach at commercial buildings and grocery stores, speaking with janitors during overnight shifts before following up by phone or in person.
According to Osmer, investigators found that workers who were cleaning WinCo stores across California were allegedly hired by subcontractors as independent contractors, despite working under conditions more consistent with employee status.
“The investigation revealed this was a problem affecting all WinCo stores where Tec Services contracted for janitorial services,” Caitlin Gray, an attorney representing the workers, told Prism. “When workers are classified as independent contractors instead of employees, they are deprived of the protections that California law affords employees.”
Gray said workers classified as independent contractors can be denied benefits employees are legally entitled to receive.
Violations and fear of retaliation
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs also allege a failure to provide paid sick leave, failure to reimburse business expenses, inaccurate wage statements, and failure to pay all wages owed when employment ended.
“The wage theft occurring here is … one of the worst violations,” Gray said.
According to Gray, the lawsuit seeks relief not only for the named plaintiffs, but also for all workers allegedly affected by the same practices statewide.
“We know of at least 40 janitors in Southern California who were affected and believe there’s several more throughout the state—likely over 100 janitors were impacted by these practices,” Gray said.
Ramírez, who cleaned WinCo stores from 2018 through 2022, said she found the job through a Facebook posting and accepted it hoping to support her family.
“[The manager] just told me that it would involve cleaning the entire store: A butcher shop had to be kept spotless, the store had to be polished, and we had to follow the instructions from the WinCo managers,” Ramírez said. “That was all she told us.”
According to Ramírez, she often began work late at night, sometimes waiting until midnight or 1 a.m. to start cleaning after customers and store employees had left the sales floor. She said shifts frequently stretched into the morning.
“We didn’t have a set time to finish,” she said. “Sometimes we wouldn’t finish until around 9 a.m.”
Ramírez said workers were discouraged from taking meal breaks and were not compensated for all of the hours they worked.
“They told us it was better not to stop for lunch,” she recalled. “They even told us once that they’d pay for it—that they’d cover the cost of lunch or the break—but that wasn’t the case. They didn’t pay for it.”
She also described being asked to complete the work of absent co-workers without additional pay.
Ramírez said she did not initially recognize that the conditions she experienced might violate labor laws and feared retaliation as an immigrant. She didn’t realize there was inequality until organizers explained the ways in which the companies were breaking the law through unfair practices. She said representatives investigating the case eventually contacted her, but she was initially skeptical.
“I thought it was some kind of a trap,” Ramírez said.
Gray and Osmer said immigrant workers are often particularly vulnerable to labor exploitation.
Still, Osmer said California law protects workers regardless of immigration status, and the Labor Commissioner’s Office does not ask workers about their legal status when investigating wage theft claims.
“This is a big issue we see in janitorial in California in general,” she said. “We also have a large urban workforce, and unfortunately, you see employers sometimes try and take advantage of that right and intimidate workers out of speaking out, especially under the current administration with attacks on immigrant communities.”
Labor commission cites more than $1 million
MCTF referred its Sacramento investigation to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office after documenting workers’ experiences, including payment records that Osmer said often consisted of Zelle transfers instead of traditional payroll.
The resulting citations totaled more than $1 million against Tec Services, with additional citations issued to WinCo Foods and subcontractors. Although those findings are being appealed, Osmer said they represent an important acknowledgment of the workers’ claims.
“Workers are having success at winning wages back when they do speak out,” she said, “What we want to see is more recognition, more enforcement of our laws against misclassification, and more recognition by client employers, whether those be grocery stores or the building owners.”
Gray said the Labor Commissioner found that WinCo and Tec Services jointly employed the janitors because of the level of control they exercised over how the work was performed.
“Even after that decision, nothing has changed in their practices,” Gray said. “[The companies] hire out these subcontractors and treat the janitors as independent contractors, failing to pay for all the hours that they work, failing to pay them overtime, failing to give them meal and rest periods, failing to give them sick leave, and so to address the problem because it is a systemic problem.”
Ramírez said the investigation lasted about two years and gave her a sense that workers like her mattered.
“I felt like a real person,” she said. “I felt moved to know that people who aren’t close to me care about my future.”
The demanding overnight schedule also affected her family life. Ramírez, a mother of three, said she spent little time with her children because she worked through the night and slept during the day for only an hour or two.
Now employed at another supermarket, Ramírez said her current workplace offers paid breaks and more respectful treatment.
“They treat us like human beings,” she said.
Gray said the plaintiffs hope the financial consequences will encourage changes in company practices.
“We’re hoping that by seeking these monetary damages, we can encourage WinCo and Tec Services to change their practices so that they don’t encounter ongoing liability for these violations of the law,” she said.
The case is in its early stages and could take years to reach trial, although a settlement remains possible at any stage.
“More than anything, I hope for justice,” Ramírez said. “We work out of necessity, but thanks to [MCTF], we’ve discovered our worth as people.”
She also had a message for workers facing similar conditions.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “We stand up for our rights; we are the people who put money in your pockets; we are not animals. We are people who feel, who live, and we are ready to wake up and refuse to let anyone else humiliate us or take advantage of us.”
Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor
Alexandra is a Cuban-American writer based in Miami, with an interest in immigration, the economy, gender justice, and the environment. Her work has appeared in CNN, Vice, and Catapult Magazine, among others.
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