The Maryland Department of Labor has ordered CVVY Enterprises to pay nearly $36,000 for denying paid time off to 27 janitors who clean Sen. Angela Alsobrooks’ Baltimore office building — including seven who say they lost their jobs after trying to form a union.
Commissioner of Labor and Industry Devki Virk wrote in a six-page order obtained by The Washington Times that investigators found CVVY withheld pay stubs, distributed small cash payments and misclassified workers as 1099 contractors to skirt state laws requiring full wages for 644 hours of accrued sick time and domestic violence leave.
The state Labor Department informed CVVY Executive Ryan Nguyen and Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ attorneys on Wednesday that the company must reimburse the workers a total of $11,571.54 and remit an additional $24,300 in civil penalties. It also ordered CVVY to begin properly documenting paid leave.
Ms. Virk wrote that a CVVY official speaking with investigators last year “expressed frustration with the investigation and suggested that it would be easier to terminate the employees” than comply with state labor laws.
She said the company, which also does business as NWIN Overlook Group, later ignored a Jan. 29 request by investigators to document each janitor’s accrued leave time within 15 days.
“To date, the Employer has failed to provide any additional information or documentation regarding employee Sick and Safe Leave accounts,” Ms. Virk wrote in the order.
Mr. Nguyen did not respond to an email and phone call from The Times seeking comment.
The state Labor Department has threatened that if his company does not pay out within 30 days of July 30, it would be hit with a 17% collection fee, with enforcement turned over to state debt collectors.
“Additional information is not available at this time,” Dinah Winnick, communications director for the Maryland Department of Labor, said in an email.
Located at the corner of Charles and Pratt streets near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the building also houses the Maryland Department of Labor and offices for several federal agencies.
Maryland has a long record of supporting labor unions — and Ms. Alsobrooks, the Democratic former executive of Prince George’s County, actively courted union support during her 2024 campaign for the Senate.
Meredith Happy, Ms. Alsobrooks’ communications director, called the CVVY order “a step toward justice” and pledged that the Democrat “will continue to advocate for the workers to receive fair treatment.”
“Senator Alsobrooks was outraged to learn about the mistreatment and unfair firings of essential workers employed by the building where her Baltimore regional office is located,” Ms. Happy said Thursday in an email.
Union officials say that’s not enough. They stressed that Ms. Alsobrooks said nothing publicly about CVVY before Thursday, even though they relayed the complaints after she took office in January 2025.
“Justice for janitors means that Senator Alsobrooks ensures CVVY and any affiliated companies are not permitted to operate anywhere in Baltimore or the state of Maryland,” said Jaime Contreras, 32BJ SEIU executive vice president.
“We cannot allow them to set a dangerous precedent that signals to other companies that they too can violate the law and drag down our city and state’s standards,” he added.
According to 32BJ SEIU, the union represents over 22,000 cleaning, maintenance and security workers in the D.C. area — mostly immigrants from 64 countries who speak 28 languages.
The National Labor Relations Board is investigating a separate complaint that 32BJ filed against CVVY Enterprises. It demands that the company rehire and pay back wages to seven of the janitors it fired after they attempted to unionize at 100 S. Charles St. and 201 N. Charles St. in Baltimore.
“As this case remains open, the Agency is unable to provide comment at this time,” Sylvester A. Giustino, the federal board’s director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, said in an email.
Maria Tadeo, one of the fired janitors who cleaned Ms. Alsobrooks’ building for seven years, is the single mother of a special-needs daughter and says she has struggled to pay her bills.
The Maryland Department of Labor ordered CVVY to pay Ms. Tadeo $582 for 38.8 hours of withheld leave time and $45 on top of the hourly $15 minimum wage she earned.
“The company never reached out to tell me why,” Ms. Tadeo said in a June statement, referring to her February 2025 termination.
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