Photo by Jacques Arsenault
Capital Bikeshare was riding high last week after the release of two surveys reporting that its members are saving money, getting exercise, and generally living better through communal bicycle use. But not everything is as bright as the cherry red paint jobs that cover the system’s nearly 1,700 three-speed rides. And now, a group of its current and former workers are asking the public to take note.
Bikeshare’s operator, Portland, Ore.-based Alta Bicycle Share, is the target of a complaint filed earlier this year with the U.S. Labor Department by a former Bikeshare mechanic who says he is owed more than $5,000 in back pay. Samuel Swenson, who worked as a mechanic for Bikeshare between September 2011 and August 2012, alleges that he was paid several dollars less per hour than the federal prevailing wage for a “bike repairer,” The Washington Post reported earlier this month.
Alta runs Capital Bikeshare for the District Department of Transportation, and the contract between the two entities stipulates that its employees be paid federal prevailing wages. In his complaint, Swenson said he should have been paid between $14.33 and $15.66 per hour, when he actually earned $13 an hour.
In a petition launched yesterday, Swenson was joined by 15 other Bikeshare mechanics and drivers who say they were similarly shortchanged. The petition, in the form of an open letter to Alta president Mia Birk, states that some of Swenson’s fellow signers are owed as much as $12,000.
Omar [Estrada] and Spencer [Turner] pedaled the city streets for two years, doing on-site bike repairs and responding to emergencies. They were hired with the promise of immediate benefits but had them revoked within a month of hire. Working 35-40 hour weeks, Omar and Spencer are each due over $12,000 in Federally-mandated health & welfare benefits.
All together, the workers are owed more than $100,000, according to a press release. A May 8 statement from Bikeshare reads that Alta is aware of the Labor Department complaint and is cooperating, but does not elaborate beyond that. But business is booming for the bicycle sharing company. In addition to Capital Bikeshare’s success, Alta is celebrating the launch of Citi Bike in New York and planning for the rollout of Divvy in Chicago. It also operates bike-sharing systems in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, and Columbus, Ohio.
