Quincy Reeves was working as a janitor in Connecticut in 2019 when he decided he’d had enough. His paychecks from cleaning services giant Coverall Inc. had been shrinking due to deductions for everything from administrative fees to finance payments. “There was a whole lot of stuff coming out of my check,” he told Capital & Main in an interview. “Something seemed funny to me.”
Along with another janitor, he filed a class-action lawsuit against Coverall, saying it had misclassified its workers as contractors when they were actually employees. Tallying up the gas costs, cleaning supply bills and all the fees he was paying to get clients, he says that some weeks he wasn’t even making minimum wage.
By late 2020, with many of his clients bailing in the throes of the pandemic, Reeves’ case looked doomed. He had signed a document agreeing to give up his right to fight in court, and Coverall had forced him into closed-door arbitration. When his lawyer called to tell Reeves that the American Arbitration Association had sent a $3,937.50 bill for arbitrator fees, Reeves had to give up the fight. He said he didn’t have the money — little surprise considering he’d been making between $1,700 and $1,800 a month. When AAA saw that it wasn’t going to get paid, it closed his case on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I think they put you through this stuff to deter you,” he said.
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