One of my former positions was as a Safety Director and Subcontract Manager
for a Contracted Janitorial company.  Now we cleaned malls and department
stores but some of the things our Subcontractors did horrified me at the
time.  We had an incident where the leader of a sub was paid and then skipped
town. Suddenly all the equipment vanished from the supermarkets they were
working at.  In another incident an entire floor stripping crew was picked up
in the middle of the night by the INS, all illegal workers.  In a third most
disturbing incident, the workers crashed through doors and displays with the
ride-on scrubber and automatic buffer machines.  We had to foot the bill and
then deduct it from their pay.
    The reason for choosing a subcontractor is that they do the work and they
worry about getting a staff and handling all the paperwork surrounding it.
Unfortunately most subcontractors do not do their paperwork entirely.  Most
don't worry about immigration laws or are in fact themselves from another
country and are helping others out from their country of origin.  These
workers are not all hispanic, most of  workers in our subs were from Eastern
European countries. Some companies have their own equipment but some need to
use your equipment.  What some people may see as maintenance is down-right
destruction in our eyes.  Our company lost several peices of expensive
equipment from Subcontract abuse.
     Now not all subcontractors out there work like this.  But you need to
check into the companies you bring in, especially in a museum setting.  In a
department store or mall they can break displays or columns as we had happen
at one location.  In a museum there are items far more priceless then a
column.  Just from my experience with the janitorial trade I would seriously
caution anyone about the company they bring in to clean their museum.  Check
their history, how long have they been around under their current name?, what
is their maintenance policy, do they have their own equipment? Also make sure
that any contract you have with them includes that you are "Additionaly
Insured" for all General Liability.  This way if something happens it will
fall back on them.  Most companies you have to ask them to put this on their
insurance.  You must also get a copy of their insurance with your name on it.
Richard Baker
Volunteer Museum Tech at Harpers Ferry NHP

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