Survey Reveals the Dirty Side of Cleaning Companies

Survey Reveals the Dirty Side of Honduran Cleaning Companies

Honduras’s five largest cleaning companies all consistently violate the labor rights guaranteed to their employees under Honduran law, according to a study commissioned by the AJS Labor Rights Project.

The study proves that the companies in question–CODELEX, Pisos Brillantes, HIMO, HIGIA, and CHIC–are guilty of a slew of labor violations including regularly subjecting their employees to mandatory pregnancy tests, failing to pay overtime and holiday pay, and denying mandatory health and educational benefits. Even worse, one of the biggest companies, CODELEX, holds lucrative contracts with many government ministries, implicating even the Honduran government in the support of companies that violate Honduran labor laws.

The study was carried out by Dr. Henry Mancia, who has designed research projects for UNICEF, UNESCO, the Honduran Secretary of Defense, and other organizations. In the study Dr. Mancia administered a test of 62 questions to 156 employees of the five companies. The resulting list showed that Pisos Brillantes was the worst violator, with an average of 84 percent of workers reporting they had suffered the labor violations referred to in the survey; second was CODELEX, with 73 percent; third was HIMO, with 67 percent, fourth was CHIC, with 62 percent; fifth was HIGIA, with 36 percent.

Despite the high percentage of women who reported violations, there have been only 13 official complaints filed against the companies in the Ministry of Labor. Sadly, Honduras’s high unemployment rate causes so much demand for work that employees will often put up with major labor violations for fear of losing their jobs.

Dr. Kurt Ver Beek, vice-president of ASJ board of directors, revealed the study’s findings at a recent press conference attended by approximately 50 reporters, members of civil society, and representatives of various government offices. Also in attendance were two former employees of CODELEX.

Brenda, one of the workers, gave a powerful testimony. Fighting back tears, she said she had sought her supervisor’s help after her son had been raped by a man in the family’s Tegucigalpa neighborhood. Brenda went to the CODELEX office to ask for time off to be with her children after this traumatic event, and to ask for help in filing charges against the rapist. Not only did they not provide her with personal support, they would not give her leave, and when she did not show up to work, they fired her – a gross violation of Honduran law and common decency.

Brenda also said that when she worked for CODELEX she was sent to the head office every two months to sign two papers – one, a voluntary resignation; the other, a new contract of hire. By rehiring employees every two months the company covers up the record of how long workers have actually been with the company, hindering their ability to reclaim rights like vacation days and severance pay which by law should increase with each month an employee works for an employer. To add insult to injury, Brenda was not paid for the day when she had to sign the contracts.

Dr. Ver Beek said he understands that the companies are under significant pressure to cut costs in order to keep their bids low. But as long as the government turns a blind eye to the violations, or administers only insignificant fines, cleaning companies will continue to violate workers’ rights to save money (often companies are fined only $250 for cheating their employees out of tens of thousands of dollars). He called on those in attendance to advocate on behalf of those workers by telling the government and the private institutions that hire the cleaning companies that they should exclude any companies with labor violations from the bidding process.

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