Cleaners continue to push back, report employer for unfair labor practices

By Nicole Shaker •

Cleaners at NSU, represented by 32BJ Service Employees International Union, are in a dispute with their employer, Encompass Onsite, over adverse effects they claim were caused by the cleaning product Encompass H30.

The union also reported several unfair labor practices by Encompass, including the suspension of Maria Elena Hernandez, cleaner and shop steward for 32BJ SEIU, whom they believe was put on leave in retaliation for speaking out.

Encompass introduced H30 to the cleaning staff last October and several cleaners have reported harmful reactions since.

Cleaner Alba Ramirez said she was diagnosed with asthma Feb. 20 due to her use of the product.

“There was a time when I used it a lot and I started to feel a fire in my throat, and I looked at myself, and my tongue was all red, my lips were swollen, and I started to feel pressure in my chest,” Ramirez said. “I went to the emergency room because I couldn’t breathe well. I was very scared.”

That was the first of two times Ramirez went to the ER with these symptoms following the use of H30.

Todd Templin, executive vice president of BoardroomPR, said in a statement to The Current that the cleaners’ reactions have not been conclusively connected to H30.

“To date, we have not been presented with any medical evidence that these health concerns are connected to aqueous ozone [H30],” the statement read. “We partner with a workers’ compensation carrier that relies on an independent third-party medical diagnosis to determine if an injury or accident is work-related. The claims processed thus far have been denied or found inconclusive.”

The union submitted complaints to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who began an investigation on Feb. 13. OSHA has conducted two inspections at NSU, on Feb. 16 and March 6.

Eric Lucero, Florida media contact for the U.S. Department of Labor, said in a statement to The Current, “OSHA does not provide preliminary or interim reports while investigations are open.”

The union also filed an unfair labor practice charge with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board on March 20. The charge details six violations by Encompass, including Hernandez’s indefinite suspension, threats to workers and the removal of union personnel from the worksite.

On Feb. 13, cleaners rallied on University Drive to protest the product and Hernandez’s suspension.

“Maria Elena, we believe, has been retaliated against for her outspokenness in talking about these unhealthy and terrible working conditions,” Ana Tinsly, regional communications manager for 32BJ SEIU, said.

Templin said Encompass cannot share details of its investigation of Hernandez. Hernandez is still active in the union.

“I am not physically on campus, but I have always continued my work as a worker representative. The workers are in constant communication with me,” Hernandez said. “Every day, I get 10 to 15 calls from workers, either raising concerns, complaints, or asking about my status and how I am. [Many] call me every day and say, ‘Maria Elena, I fear to go to work.’”

Herandez believes the company is mistreating the workers.

“It is not the vast majority of workers who are affected. Some are, but due to the fear of losing their jobs, they do not say so,” she said. “They take advantage of the vulnerability of the workers, that most of us are older and are afraid of losing their jobs, because, due to age, it is very difficult to find another job. Then, they force the person to work with their fear.”

Hernandez was present at the rally, where cleaners marched to the Encompass office to deliver a delegation stating the union’s requests. The company has yet to formally respond to this delegation.

Oscar Pineda, 32BJ SEIU lead field representative, set up an April 6 meeting with some students who attended the rally to discuss updates on the situation.

In the meantime, some students have begun their own initiatives.

Carol Boodram, junior computer science major, wrote a petition stating, “We demand immediate action to reassess the use of this cleaning solution, ensuring that all cleaning agents are safe, non-toxic, and do not jeopardize the health of the staff.”

Boodram secured about 130 signatures and plans to get more before giving the petition to NSU President George L. Hanbury II.

“Regardless if [NSU] outsources their employees, at the end of the day, the janitors are still working on campus. It affects everybody,” Boodram said. “It’s what they’re cleaning with, and it’s a problem with the students, too. What happens if the students are touching surfaces, and a student so happens to have a bad reaction to a surface they touched? It’s not safe, so it’s an NSU problem.”

Malaya Mulroy, sophomore chemistry major, also circulated the petition.

“I used to work in [Einstein Bros. Bagels], and I personally know a lot of the janitors, because we all talk, and they were telling me about it,” she said. “If that chemical were to affect a student after it’s been applied, then it would become an NSU problem, and I think that’s where it gets me. It’s because if it were to happen to a student, that chemical probably would have been gone by now.”

Hernandez appreciates the students’ support.

“We are very proud to work at Nova. The workers are proud of what they do. Even when they were the frontline workers during the pandemic, working while there was this unknown virus circulating, it was nothing for them to do the work because they felt they were doing it for all of you, the students, to make sure that you guys have clean classes, clean auditoriums to go to,” Hernandez said. “That is something that they are honored to do and that they like to do. What they are doing, they do it for you and they are grateful that you give them support in return.”

NSU has remained neutral.

“We’re staying out of it. This is a dispute between the company and its employees,” Daniel Alfonso, vice president of Facilities Management and Public Safety, said.

The use of H30 is still mandatory for cleaners, but the Encompass statement from Templin said cleaners with medical documentation recommending the avoidance of H30 are not required to use it.

“When an employee has provided independent documentation from a physician recommending that they avoid the product as a precautionary measure, they have been offered reassignment to tasks that do not require using cleansers,” the statement read.

Ramirez reported that, despite getting a doctor’s note stating she was allergic to H30 after her first ER visit, she was not accommodated immediately.

“They forced me to continue carrying the product, or else I would go home,” she said.

When Ramirez went to the ER again, her doctor gave her a second letter instructing her to stay away from the product.

“The doctor was very angry. [He said], ‘If you already have a report of poisoning from the product, why are they giving you that again?’ Then, he sent me another letter,” she said. “He told me that they couldn’t give me that, that it was inconceivable that they would give me that, knowing that I had already been there for the same thing.”

Ramirez was then moved to garbage collection, but she said this new assignment is also problematic. She said the area she cleans now is large, and her hands swell and blister severely from the sweeping.

“I said, ‘Why don’t you return me to my position,’ and they said, ‘If you want to come back to your position, you have to use the liquid.’ So I was very sad,” Ramirez said. “They weren’t worrying about us, about our health, about anything, because we have families, children, grandchildren.”

Greg McMullen, vice president of service delivery at Encompass, said H30 is sustainable and provides safe, effective and environmentally friendly cleaning.

“The inventor came up with this. We beta tested it for a couple of years,” he said.

The inventor of the product is Dan Lynn, founder of BioSecurity Technology. He believes cleaners’ reactions are likely caused by H30 interacting with other chemicals.

“I was thinking that maybe they had chemicals in the bottle when they filled it up with our water, and some kind of reaction happened there,” Lynn said. “Or maybe when they were scrubbing the area with their cloth, they got some chemical that was left behind, like the biofilm, and they got it on their skin.”

Maria Ballester, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics, said that mixing the product with other chemicals or diluting it incorrectly could be the issue.

“If people are having issues, maybe it’s not necessarily that the product was bad, but that the dilution was too concentrated to work with. OSHA is going to check concentrations,” she said. “My opinion, it had to do something with concentration or mixing.”

BioSecurity Technology sells aqueous ozone to companies like BMW, American Express and Amazon. Encompass has an exclusive licensing agreement.

“The agreement we have with Encompass is that they’re a distributor for our product,” Lynn said. “They’re private labeling our product, and we take full responsibility for the manufacturing, the safety of our product.”

The product is made by a machine that injects ozone into water. Lynn said the machine can’t add more or less ozone than expected.

“You can’t turn up or down anything. Everything is all pre-set. It cannot be changed,” Lynn said. “It’s just ozone gas being mixed in the water, and you can’t adjust that. All of our equipment is pre-manufactured to reach a certain set point.”

Hernandez believes an easy resolution is possible.

“I think that this problem could be solved when the affected workers, with me and the company, sit down and look for a solution. That, I believe, would be the most correct way to end this problem,” Hernandez said.

Ramirez is hoping for a resolution soon.

She said, crying, “We have a voice, but they don’t want to hear it.”

Editor’s note: Interviews with Maria Elena Hernandez and Alba Ramirez were conducted in Spanish and translated to English.