Kulbir Kaila’s last shift at Simon Fraser University started like any other.
She commuted from her home in Surrey to the Burnaby campus, where she worked as a cleaner, and started work at 7 a.m. on July 28, a Monday. One of the janitors employed by contractor Best Service Pros to clean the campus, Kaila was a regular on the morning shift.
Co-workers say that over the next eight hours, the 61-year-old cleaner worked her way through campus buildings, cleaning the sections she had been assigned.
Cleaners had been called on to clean larger areas over the last two years, they said, and pushing a cart of cleaning equipment around the university was difficult for Kaila, who suffered leg pain.
But Kaila was a hard worker. And her peers were managing the bigger workload.
Around 2:30 p.m., Kaila asked a co-worker and a nearby security guard for a drink of water. Minutes later, she collapsed. She died before the end of her shift.
The BC Coroners Service is still investigating and has not determined the cause of Kaila’s death.
SFU said in a statement that Kaila’s death had “nothing to do with the working environment.”
But The Tyee spoke to seven of Kaila’s co-workers, who all say they believe an excessive workload, strenuous working conditions and a lack of support for existing health conditions contributed to her death.
Some say they want accountability. Others say they’re worried for their own health, and that their employer, the university and their union have let Kaila down.
“I feel horrible,” said Jay Bodalia, a former cleaner at the university. Bodalia worked for Best for 3.5 years before he was part of a group of employees laid off in May 2024. He said he is trying to get his job back.
Kaila’s death highlights the decline of the cleaners’ working conditions at the university, say workers and a group of students, staff and faculty at SFU who have been sounding the alarm about their working conditions for years.
Now one advocacy group is renewing a years-long campaign for the university to end its contract with Best and other contractors and hire the janitors directly instead.
Best Service Pros has offices in Coquitlam, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa and says its contracts include cleaning at the Vancouver Convention Centre, University of Toronto and University of Alberta.
The private company did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
‘She was my best friend’
Kaila’s brother, Hardeep Johal, remembers Kaila as very sweet and a little shy.
“She’s a person with a big heart,” Johal said. “She was very generous and loyal, one of the most honest people you’ve ever met.”
Kaila suffered from leg and back pain, he said. When she visited, Johal said, he would send his children to help her from her car to the front door. Still, he said, she worked four or five days each week.
“She never wanted to sit around at home,” he said. “She always wanted to be doing something, like visiting people, visiting friends.”
Kaila was one of approximately 150 janitors employed by Best Service Pros at SFU.
One cleaner who worked alongside Kaila at Best for more than a decade remembers her as a hard worker and a sweet woman. The Tyee has agreed to keep her identity confidential to protect her employment.
“She was my best friend,” said the janitor, whose first language is Punjabi. “She was a really nice lady. Her behaviour was very nice with everyone.”
Kaila’s leg and back pain made work tough, according to Kaila’s co-worker. Janitors are expected to walk to their assigned areas across SFU’s sprawling campus, pushing their equipment in wheeled carts.
But her co-worker said Kaila rarely turned the work down.
“She was a very good worker,” Kaila’s co-worker said. “She gave everyone training, and the areas she cleaned, nobody had to follow because she was so good.”
Over the last two years, the janitor said, their workload started to increase. They were expected to clean larger and larger portions of campus. The work took a toll on Kaila and the others.
“I am speaking because too many times Kaila called me about work,” one woman said. “She was too stressed.”
Bodalia said he still keeps in touch with the cleaners and is a staunch advocate for their working conditions.
“The majority of them are very vulnerable,” Bodalia said. “They complain, but the problem is, they don’t speak English very well, and they are always scared if they speak, maybe they’re going to get fired.”
The janitors handle hazardous cleaning materials. Bodalia alleges that during his time with the company, management bought the cheapest gloves and other personal protective equipment and sometimes did not provide adequate cleaning equipment.
Best Service Pros splits the campus into areas. Bodalia said every day a manager would assign cleaners a specific number of areas to clean. Five years ago, cleaners might be asked to clean two or three areas each shift.
But cleaners have been assigned more and more areas to cover, he said. By this year, Bodalia said, cleaners could be expected to clean up to four buildings each shift, which could include as many as eight areas.
Bodalia said he and other cleaners tried to raise the issue with their union, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3338. He said none of the janitors got to meet the union face to face to discuss their complaints.
“Lots of people complained but the union, CUPE, never returned our calls,” Bodalia said. “It’s unbelievable. They never helped us.”
The Tyee spoke to five other cleaners currently employed by Best at SFU. Three shared their stories through an interpreter.
They all asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs. Three told The Tyee they are given only four pairs of disposable rubber gloves to use each shift — gloves that easily rip, leaving their hands unprotected.
Two said they had heard Kaila complain that cleaning more areas across campus aggravated her pre-existing leg pain.
Three, who primarily spoke Punjabi, alleged via an interpreter that they had not been given a copy of their collective agreement that they could understand.
All five said they had been asked to clean larger and larger sections of the university each shift.
A wake-up call
Paramedics were called to campus just before 3 p.m. on July 28, BC Emergency Health Services information officer Brian Twaites said in an email.
He said they did not transport any patients to the hospital.
Police responded at 3:45 p.m. after hearing a person had died in a building at 8888 University Dr., Burnaby RCMP Cpl. Mike Kalanj said in an email.
He said police found Kaila’s death was “of a medical nature,” and the BC Coroners Service is investigating the exact cause of death.
Shaneza Bacchus, CUPE Local 3338 president, said Kaila’s death was a “wake-up call.”
“I am so really sorry that this happened and I really want to get to the bottom of it,” she said. “We are all committed to doing better with these members.”
Bacchus said the union has not given members enough in-person “face time” to communicate the work it has been doing with the employer.
Part of the union’s challenge, Bacchus said, is the language barrier. Members predominantly speak Punjabi, Tagalog and Hindi as their first languages. Others speak Mandarin and Cantonese.
Bacchus said the union hasn’t been able to afford to translate the workers’ collective agreement, much less hire someone to help with face-to-face meetings. Still, Bacchus said the union has a responsibility to better communicate with members.
“It’s about meeting the members where they are,” she said. “They need face time, and we need to do that.”
She said she’d heard members’ complaints about excessive workload. She confirmed members had been asked to clean more areas — but added they were expected to do “surface level” cleans of the areas instead of deep cleans.
Bacchus said she’s not sure if management communicated the change in expectations to all the workers — the language barrier made that difficult.
Still, the workload continued to increase. In April 2024, Best Service Pros laid off 23 cleaners after the university tightened its budget for the contractors. The remaining 150 members had to pick up their slack.
“It’s very heavy work, doing custodial work. SFU is a huge campus,” she said.
Besides the extra work, Bacchus said walking between more areas is hard on the cleaners. She estimates members now have to do up to 40,000 steps each shift, pushing equipment across campus on wheeled carts.
“People who may not have had to go from one end of the campus to another now suddenly have to cover a really big scope,” Bacchus said. “It’s a lot. It takes an impact on you.”
Bacchus added the majority of the cleaners are older than 50. Some members have limited mobility and manage elbow, back and leg pain.
While the cleaners have access to limited health and physiotherapy benefits, Bacchus said the union has tried to negotiate more breaks and better coverage — but members have voted instead to prioritize bargaining for higher salaries.
“Money means food on the table,” she said. “Money means being able to pay rent, and these are members who are working two or three jobs and are just trying to provide for their family at the end of the day.”
Simon Fraser University announced it would become a living-wage employer in 2022. The union got the cleaners’ salary bumped during bargaining in 2023 and the Best Service Pros cleaners earn $27.05 per hour.
Bacchus noted that’s before deductions for taxes, uniforms and transportation. Often, she said, cleaners take home closer to $22 per hour.
She added many of the cleaners have worked with Kaila for more than a decade.
“This is really hitting them hard,” Bacchus said. “People were already scared last year from the layoffs. Now, someone dying in the workplace amplifies that fear exponentially. Everyone is scared for their health and their safety.”
Bacchus said the union is waiting to hear from WorkSafeBC and the BC Coroners Service about the exact cause of Kaila’s death before taking action.
‘Part of the SFU community’
“The news is utterly horrific, but it’s also deeply angering,” said Enda Brophy, an associate professor of communications at the university.
In 2021, he co-founded a group of students, staff and faculty called Contract Worker Justice who have been sounding the alarm about the janitors’ working conditions for years.
“Contract Worker Justice has repeatedly warned the administration that this contractor is bad for the campus community,” Brophy said. “It is horrific that SFU’s continued refusal to terminate its contract with Best has come to this.”
Brophy said Best janitors have complained for years about heavy-handed management, health and safety concerns and excessive workloads.
In 2022, Contract Worker Justice released a report based on a series of interviews with janitors and food service workers.
The organization said cleaners reported being given insufficient cleaning equipment to properly do their jobs, putting their own health and safety at risk.
For example, one reported being asked to clean surfaces with rags and vinegar rather than a stronger disinfectant. Others reported a refusal by management to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group called for Simon Fraser University to end its contract with Best and instead hire the workers in-house.
But Bacchus said that since the report, little has changed for the janitors. They got a pay bump in 2023, but their workload has only continued to rise.
The union has negotiated some changes and filed grievances, Bacchus said.
“Ultimately, it would change for the better exponentially if SFU would stop contracting out and bring those workers in-house.”
Contract Worker Justice has documented an increase in the janitors’ workload in the 16 months since 15 per cent of the workforce was laid off, Brophy said.
He is renewing his call for the university to hire janitors itself instead of using a contractor.
“The solution to this situation is for SFU to do the right thing and bring these workers in, give them all rights, privileges that other workers have,” he said.
Simon Fraser University did not provide anyone to answer questions. A spokesperson said in an email questions about Kaila’s employment should be directed to Best.
“The sad passing of a Best worker had nothing to do with the working environment,” said Will Henderson, an SFU spokesperson, in an email.
The BC Coroners Service confirmed it is investigating a death on July 28 at SFU. Spokesperson Holly Tally said in an email she could not share any more details.
WorkSafeBC spokesperson Yesenia Dhott said in an email that it had also been notified of Kaila’s death.
But whatever an investigation reveals, Kabir Madan said he and some of the janitors want to see change. Madan is a former graduate student at the university and member of Contract Worker Justice.
Madan speaks Punjabi and has built relationships with the cleaning staff on campus. He keeps in touch with many.
When Kaila died last month, Madan said, his phone rang off the hook.
“The worker died on the job, at campus, as a part of the SFU community,” he said. “The janitors want CUPE to take a stance and, if not, hold the employer accountable, at least acknowledge the worker’s death.”
But despite repeated calls to action by students, staff and faculty, Madan said, janitors still haven’t seen an impact.
“The fact that we have not been able to do anything significant about it reflects on our own selves,” he said. “It reflects very poorly on the larger campus community.”
