Janitors Face Job Losses

Several subcontracted custodial workers employed by Harvard Real Estate Services have been abruptly notified that they will be laid off effective Monday and others have been informed that their hours will be reduced, according to a union organizer.

OneSource and UNICCO—subcontracted companies that clean properties administered by HRES—had been asked by Harvard earlier this year to cut contract costs in response to a predicted 30 percent decline in the University’s endowment.

Two weeks ago, HRES told OneSource more specifically that it must cut 40 percent of its costs by March 16, according to Daniel B. Becker, an organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 615, which represents custodial workers at Harvard.

Manny Costa, who manages OneSource’s contract with Harvard, said that it had not yet been decided which workers nor how many workers would be laid off—even though the timing potentially gives some weekend workers less than a day’s notice before their termination. He added that the information would likely be finalized by tomorrow, but he refused to provide estimates regarding the number of workers to be cut.

Becker said that to the best of his knowledge, eight workers would be laid off and two would face reduced hours out of the total 19 workers subcontracted by HRES from OneSource and UNICCO. He noted that while the remainder will not see their hours changed, they will have substantially more ground to cover in their work.

Becker added yesterday that all figures had not been finalized and could change.

Harvard spokesman Kevin Galvin said that the scaling back of contracts was necessary in response to the University’s unprecedented fiscal challenges.

The move “comes after we have frozen salaries for faculty and non-union staff this year and offered a voluntary early retirement program in order to lower compensation costs,” he said.

Additional confusion has arisen after various custodial workers reported that they had been notified of their termination—even though they were not on preliminary lists of workers to be cut provided by the subcontractors, Becker said. But he added that the Union has procedures established to address potential mistakes—including compensation and reinstatement—and that the more distressing issue is that layoffs are occurring at all.

He noted that Harvard Medical School is also planning similar moves to cut costs through subcontractors, and that the Union is certain that further waves of cuts are to follow.

“We know the layoffs will have a devastating impact for families,” Becker said. “We have, amongst those set to be laid off, one worker who has a young child in El Salvador, who he provides [funding] for her schooling and medical necessities.”

Becker said that notifying workers of layoffs and hours-reductions on such short notice is not illegal or a breach of contract, but does “break a whole host of moral values.”

“The fact that a worker can be notified with less than one day’s notice...is part of a systemic problem that is at its core [representative of] the very limited legal protections” enjoyed by American workers today, Becker said.

—Staff Writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.