The D.C. Act 21-485, also known as the Building Service Employees Minimum Work Week Act of 2016 establishes a 30-hour minimum work week for building service employees. A building service employee is defined as an individual “performing janitorial services, building maintenance services, or other services in or around a covered location to maintain the repair, cleanliness, and overall quality of the covered location.” A covered location is an office building in an office park or a group of office buildings with a common ownership and management, and are contiguous or have consecutive addresses, and when combined, have over 350,000 net rentable commercial office square.
Under the Act, it is unlawful for an employer that directly employs, contracts, or subcontracts covered employees to:
- Fail to provide a minimum work week as required by the Act or a regulation issued pursuant to the Act; or
- Discharge, threaten, penalize, or in any other manner discriminate or retaliate against a covered employee for making a complaint to the employer or District government official, or for exercising their rights under the law.
Posting Requirements
Covered employers must post and maintain the Building Service Employees Minimum Work Week Act of 2016 Poster in a conspicuous place. The poster must be in English and all languages spoken by covered employees with limited or no-English proficiency. Employers that fail to comply with the posting requirements may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $100 per day, not to exceed $500.