Workers say they were pressured into accepting job offers with outside contractors or face termination as part of restructuring

In many ways it was the little things that helped WeWork build its office rental business into the biggest private landlord in New York and London.

WeWork “members” – as the company calls its tenants – gather to gossip around the fruit water coolers lined with fresh slices of pineapple or strawberries and kiwi on each floor. They hold meetings fueled by La Colombe coffee served up in endless supply of clean WeWork mugs, stamped with the logo “Do What You Love”. They network over IPAs at the always replenished beer taps.

Those taps were closed at WeWork’s Manhattan headquarters on Thursday as the debt-ridden company began laying off thousands. Few are being hit harder than the support staff who made that happen. Staff who were paid as little as $24,000 a year in New York while WeWork’s co-founder walked away with $1.7bn.

“We are the lifeblood of WeWork. I feel as if we were sold off with no thought or understanding,” said one maintenance worker now facing an uncertain future.

“We are responsible for the upkeep and flow of the buildings. We’re the ones who make the coffee and famous fruit water that WeWork members rave about. We are responsible for the maintenance and cleanliness of the buildings,” the worker added. “Without CSAs [community service associates] and BCAs [building cleaning associates], WeWork wouldn’t work.”

WeWork’s spectacular collapse came after it was forced to shelve plans for a stock market listing amid investor skepticism about its huge debts and the leadership of its co-founder and CEO, Adam Neumann. Neumann was ousted in November but is leaving with as much as $1.7bn from the exit deal including a $185m “consultancy fee”.

As part of WeWork’s restructuring, the company’s cleaning and maintenance staff, around 1,000 workers, are being outsourced to contractors.

The cleaning and maintenance workers are classified at WeWork as community service associates and building cleaning associates. All community service associates are being outsourced to Chicago-based real estate services contractor Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), while building cleaning associates are divided between Unity Building Associates and ABM Industries.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Laid-off WeWork employees gather on sidewalk outside WeWork corporate headquarters in Manhattan, New York. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

In interviews with the Guardian, workers, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, explained that they were pressured into accepting job offers with outside contractors or faced termination without severance.

Some faced losing retirement savings WeWork had offered and workers said they had not received any answers from management over what will happen to the company shares provided to WeWork employees after one year of employment.

“It felt like we were being pressured to sign contracts with no real talk of anything and this is right before the holidays. People have families, bills, obligations. If we didn’t sign, we would’ve been left out in the cold,” said a building cleaning associate in New York City, who is being outsourced to Unity Building Associates. “WeWork sold their lower staff off like cattle. There was no warning that the lower staff were about to be outsourced to another company.”

The worker said Neumann should pay severance and restitution to the workers who kept WeWork afloat.

The community service associates and building cleaning associates perform similar job duties, but building cleaning associates work after-hours shifts, according to the worker. Building cleaning associates started at $16.65 an hour with WeWork. Workers interviewed by the Guardian said they earned between $24,000 and $35,000 a year.

Those switching over to ABM will receive a pay increase to at least $18.46 an hour. Building cleaning associates switching to Unity Building Associates are not being offered a pay raise, only a retention bonus if they are still with the contractor on 31 March 2020, according to the worker.

WeWorkers Coalition, a group of WeWork employees formed several weeks ago to give workers a voice in the restructuring processes, noted cleaning and maintenance employees who do not sign the offers are being designated as voluntary resignations, which disqualify them from receiving unemployment benefits.

The coalition also said that many of the offers pay varying wages which do not take length of service into account. Workers face losing the 401k retirement savings bonus WeWork offered for the entire year of 2019. The job offers from JLL stipulate workers are not eligible for wage increases until 2021.

WeWork declined to comment on the wage variances between contractor offers.

A community service associate with over five years’ experience at WeWork said staff were unhappy and worried about their changing benefits.

“WeWork always said we are a community so it is not fair that we have different benefits,” the worker said.

JLL deferred comment to WeWork.

“All cleaning, pantry and facilities operations employees in the US and Canada are being offered roles with JLL or one of its trusted partners,” said a spokesperson for WeWork in an email to the Guardian. “We chose to partner with JLL because they have a great reputation as an employer and a strong track record of service excellence.”

In an email sent to all cleaning and maintenance workers affected by the changes, WeWork’s managing director for US & Canada, Arik Benzino, said: “Your pay will remain the same, and your current shift assignment will not change for the time being.”