Uniform Providers Were Not Notified
The reports were requested by members of the City Council after it surfaced at a Board of Estimates meeting that international uniform supplier Cintas Corp., which has leased uniforms to the city's Parking Utility since 2001, has not paid its employees working on the city contract a specified minimum hourly wage.
Cintas managers have said the company's service agreement with the city contained no references to the living wage requirement.
The reports will be presented tonight to the Board of Estimates, which has been asked to recommend a pending contract with Cintas that would consolidate all uniform rentals by the city under one company.
During Board of Estimates deliberations two weeks ago, City Council members also expressed concern that Cintas had been advised by city staff that, under the proposed contract, it could pay all its employees a share of the required minimum wage, rather than assign particular employees to the contract and pay them each the full living wage of $9.75.
City Attorney Michael May said in his report that preparing a "proxy calculation" of wages is a "reasonable" way of complying with the ordinance.
But Ald. Judy Olson is not convinced. "I think the City Council needs to take a look at this approach," she said.
Olson said she would ask for a review of how the living wage ordinance is being implemented. "Both to make sure every vendor understands his obligation to pay a living wage, and so that we're accomplishing the goal of the program, which is to ensure that workers working on a city contract are paid a living wage," she said.
Olson also predicted the Board of Estimates would delay action, for the third time, on Cintas' pending contract.
City Comptroller Dean Brasser noted that the city does not actively monitor the ordinance and that enforcement would kick in only if an employee complains to the city.
Neither the Affirmative Action Department nor the City Comptroller's Office has received a complaint since the law was adopted in 1999.
Brasser also noted that two other uniform companies had service agreements with the city that neglected to mention Madison's living wage requirement.
But Michael Ross, general manager of operations in Madison for Aramark, one of the vendors, said his company understood the living wage requirement was "part of the requirement to do business with the city."
Ross also confirmed his plant paid employees "well above the living wage."
And Dave Prink, general manager of the Milwaukee division of Alsco, another uniform vendor, said the only employees who receive less than $9.75 an hour are probationary employees. "Everyone else is making more," he said.
City Attorney Michael May recommends in his report against requiring Cintas to make good on lost wages. "In our opinion, given the failure of the city to adequately notify Cintas at the time the contract was entered into regarding the requirements of the living wage ordinance, the most appropriate step would be to require Cintas to bring the contract into compliance with the living wage ordinance for calendar year 2004," he wrote.