LOS ANGELES – Members from janitorial watchdog group Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund (MCTF) along with the Mayor of Long Beach, labor advocates and community members are calling on healthcare giant Optum to take responsibility for wage theft at several of its LA-area medical facilities rather than further delay workers’ efforts to be paid what they are owed.
More than 90 janitors who cleaned health care facilities that are now operated by Optum, are owed $438,204.05. in stolen wages and interest. Recently, the Labor Commissioner’s Office found that Optum is liable for wage and hour violations for work performed at the facilities between 2017-2019. Optum is responsible as a client employer for the vast majority of the owed wages, $414,635.46.
“It’s very sad when you go into your job with the illusion that you will get paid for the work you perform, and then when the check is in your hands you see that it doesn’t reflect your fair pay. This is an abuse of our labor and takes advantage of workers who don’t feel like they can speak up,” said Karen Mendoza.
Janitors at these facilities were systematically denied the minimum wage, meal and rest breaks and overtime payments and after the workers joined together with the MCTF to fight the injustice, the janitorial contractors they worked for were cited by the state of California for violating the law in 2021.
“These workers have been fighting for years simply to be paid what they are owed,” said Chloe Osmer, executive director of the MCTF. “Optum has a choice: It can act responsibly or it can continue to deny justice to more than 90 workers.”
Unfortunately, when an employer or contractor is caught stealing workers’ wages, exhausting all appeals to try to avoid paying what is legally required is common in the janitorial industry. With the deadline for Optum to appeal quickly approaching on December 5, 2025, affected workers, labor advocates, and community members are urging the company to take responsibility as the client employer and pay janitors for their work.
Optum is part of the United Healthcare Group, the largest health insurer by market share nationally. Optum reported $253 billion in total revenue in 2024 — an 11.7% increase year over year, according to a fourth-quarter 2024 financial report.
Details about the Wage Theft that Occurred at the Current Optum Buildings
- Workers were employed by a “web of interlocking janitorial companies that employed – and failed to properly pay – their employees” according to the Notice of Final Findings on Civil Penalty Citation/Assessment and Order issued by the State of California Dept. of Industrial Relations Labor Commissioner’s Office on Oct. 21.
- The full list of responsible parties in the case are: Winsor Maintenance, Inc.; Winsor Services, Inc.; Main Source Group, Inc.; Main Source Global, Inc.; Main Source World, Inc.; Top Building Material & Supply, Inc.; OptumCare Management LLC; and individuals Suchin Yi, Hannah Hong, Michelle Hong and Sunkee Hong.
- The janitors primarily worked for a contractor called Main Source and they usually provided one of three types of work: day-porter work when patients and medical personnel were in the office, night-shift work, and waxing floors/carpet cleaning work.
- Based on testimony, Main Source appeared to use the timesheets to reflect the hours and breaks budgeted by Main Source for its contracts rather than the hours the employees in fact worked.
- Main Source no longer provides janitorial services at these buildings.
According to a report published by the UCLA Labor Center, Los Angeles workers in low-wage jobs lose an estimated $1.4 billion to wage theft every year. Statewide, the loss is even more staggering. As a result of these injustices, working people in low-wage jobs and their families, a majority of whom are immigrants and/or people of color, experience health problems and face food and housing insecurity. In Los Angeles, 80% of workers in low-wage jobs do not get their overtime pay. Eighty percent do not receive their meal and rest breaks.
The Workplace Justice Lab@Rutgers University analyzed federal data to estimate minimum wage violations in four of California’s largest metropolitan areas for the years 2014 through 2023. Researchers found that industries with the highest estimated violation rates tend to employ many women, people of color, and immigrant workers.
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About the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund
The MCTF is a California statewide watchdog organization whose mission is to abolish illegal and unfair business practices in the janitorial industry. The MCTF investigates allegations of employment law violations and partners with local, state, and federal enforcement agencies to hold unscrupulous contractors accountable.