Cleaning and janitorial workers injured at work

A cleaning shift may take you through several floors or several buildings while most people are gone. A job title on a pay stub may say very little about the bags, equipment and repeated movements involved.

Describe the route you actually clean

Tell the office about the stairs, the surfaces, the cart or vacuum you use and how supplies move between rooms. For gradual pain, explain which movements you repeat. For a particular incident, note the building, floor and area, along with the task.

California's DWC describes injuries from both a single event and repeated exposures. The repetitive stress page covers questions about pain that builds up during repeated work.

Source: California DWC, injured worker FAQs, checked October 2026.

The cleaning company and the building may have different names

Bring the name on your pay record and the address of the building where you worked. If a supervisor sent you by text or an app, note who assigned the work. This helps explain the arrangement without asking you to sort out every company before calling.

If the work was inside a family's home, our domestic workers page addresses that different setting. Hotel housekeeping is also discussed on the restaurant and hospitality page.

A fall or a cleaning-product incident

Write down the equipment or product involved, the location and who saw the incident. If you have a product name or an existing photograph of its label, keep that information with your notes. Tell the treating provider what you were using and what symptoms appeared.

For more detail, see chemical exposure at work or slips and falls. Neither requires you to decide the legal category before contacting the office.

Calling after an overnight shift

If you sleep during normal office hours, you can suggest a better callback time. Say whether a voicemail is okay. The contact page has those preferences, and you can speak with the office in English or Spanish.