Six months after Living Wage Coalition secured a fair employment policy from Georgetown University, the group is asking for more transparency from the administration.
According to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille, the University has implemented the policy, ensuring that all University employees and subcontracted workers at Georgetown receive wages and benefits equal to $13 per hour.
LWC member Rachel Murray (SFS ‘07) said, however, that she’s concerned because $1.50 of the total compensation the employees of some companies receive is made up of undefined benefits that are hard to quantify. Marriott workers, for example, receive free nights’ stays in Marriott hotels.
“That’s the sort of benefit that’s not part of the living wage,” Murray said. “We just don’t know where the $13 are.”
Marriott management could not divulge specific information about employee benefits. University Director of Food and Beverage Michael Basille, however, said Marriott offers its employees competitive wages and benefits packages.
But LWC member Anders Fremstad (SFS ‘06) claims Marriott employees cannot attend the student-run ESL courses promised them in the policy. The Voice could not reach Marriott Human Resources by press time.
On the contrary, employees of P&R Enterprises, which supplies the University with janitorial services, are allowed to attend the classes on their lunch breaks, according to P&R President Rit Thomson.
Last week, another University subcontractor, Allied-Barton Security Services, came under fire for its employee compensation packages from a different source. Allied’s employees, who work as night security guards in dorms, delivered a petition to the office of University President Jack DeGioia, demanding, among other things, increased wages and benefits. Under the LWC’s just employment policy, Allied guards received only a small increase in base pay.
The Allied employees are attempting to unionize with the Service Employees International Union, which is urging guards at other East Coast schools to petition as well.
Larry Rubin, a spokesperson for Allied-Barton, said company representatives met with the dissatisfied workers and that wages were not the overriding complaint. Rather, workers asked for improved working conditions, like changing rooms and lockers. Additional meetings have been scheduled, Rubin said, but he could not specify dates.
Bataille supplied the Voice with a document showing that six of Georgetown’s seven contractors have reached the $13 minimum for total compensation. Georgetown is still negotiating with the last company, Bataille said.
She added that the Advisory Committee on Business Practices-a group of students, faculty and University employees that works with Georgetown’s senior vice president-was monitoring the just employment policy’s implementation.
Murray, who is also on the advisory committee, said the group;s abilities are compromised because it only meets once a month, even though its charter demands twice-monthly meetings.
In an August meeting with campus press, President DeGioia spoke about the Living Wage Coalition’s work last year. “I think the outcome was what I’ve come to expect, being a member of this community,” DeGioia said. “But you never take anything for granted, and you know you’ve got to engage the issue as diligently and as effectively as you possibly can.”
