The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating the St. Paul-based cleaning firm PK Property Services for possible wage law violations dating back to December 2021, according a letter sent to a community group representing workers.
Feds investigate St. Paul janitorial firm for possible wage law violations
PK Property Services’ co-owner said the issues have been rectified.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 8, 2024 at 7:49PM
Labor officials confirmed the investigation on Wednesday but declined to comment further.
The department’s letter was received in June by the Minneapolis-based labor-advocacy community group Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), which had helped workers make the complaints about unpaid overtime.
On Aug. 1, CTUL officials made the letter public by submitting it to the Minnetonka City Planning Commission and the property development firm United Properties. Workers are concerned the commission and United Properties are considering rehiring PK Property to clean up a proposed apartment construction project in Minnetonka.
PK Property co-owner Andrew Beckfeld said in a phone call Wednesday that simple wage errors had occurred and were corrected at the 100-worker firm, which his father started 30 years ago. “Everyone is paid,” he said.
CTUL policy leader Briana Kemp said the group helped PK Property workers provide information to the government in 2024. The workers accused the St. Paul-based cleaning firm of failing to pay overtime and issue proper pay stubs..
Workers and allies from union and nonunion groups have since made the complaints public by testifying or protesting at recent city and county hearings in Edina, Minnetonka and Ramsey County, and at construction or business sites controlled by firms that hired PK Property, including United Properties and Solhem.
Beckfeld said PK Property’s practices are standard.
“If they work overtime, they get overtime. That is how it is,” he said.
Beckfeld said he knows of one instance involving a female worker who complained she wasn’t paid overtime.
“Aside from that we haven’t had any issues,” he said. “If there has ever been a mix-up or anything like, it’s pretty simple, saying, ‘Hey, I missed a couple of hours of overtime. And here you go. Here is a check.’ And that’s about it.”
PK Property recently won a contract with Ramsey County to clean five county buildings, including the medical examiner’s offices and the Juvenile and Family Justice Center in St. Paul. Union workers complained that PK Property is not a union shop, but county officials said the company must still pay prevailing wages under the new contract.
Ramsey County spokeswoman Rose Lindsay said in an email Wednesday that “the county was not aware of the open [federal labor] investigation before awarding this contract.”
Still, she said, the county does not plan any action at this time.
The Minnetonka-based health insurer says the new contract “ensures continued, uninterrupted network access” to hospitals and clinics at the Bloomington-based health system.
