by Heather Baxter
Assistant Sports Editor
Following concerns that the treatment and working conditions of Sodexho Marriott employees have not improved, Marriott’s regional operations director Thomas Marotta met with the Coalition of Diversity on Tuesday, where both staff and students questioned Marriott’s adherence to the promises made to employees last semester.
Junior David Rojas, who was present at the meeting, raised some doubt relating to Marriott’s commitment to the new four-step action plan proposed to employees last May. Also called to question was the company’s tactics in dealing with employees who voiced concerns about the treatment they received.
Rojas was one of the original students to bring concerns of unfair employment practices by Marriott to the University’s attention.
The four-step plan proposed by Marriott included promises to replace the existing on-campus management, the implementation of an employee incentive bonus program, the speedy execution of these new policies, and the promise to review all concerns raised by employees both quickly and thoroughly.
Although these promises have been in effect implemented in the program at La Verne, some of the original concerns of the students and staff here have not been examined by Marriott, and thus no suitable action has been taken.
The workload and the pay rates of the employees was one of the most important matters for Rojas. There are no plans to raise the pay scale, said Marotta.
Mary Prieto-Bayard, associate professor of behavioral sciences and Coalition co-chair, questioned the amount of work that employees were expected to complete in a short amount of time.
“I’ve been told by the people in my building [Founders Hall] that they would like me to report that the classrooms are dirty,” said Prieto-Bayard. “I thought that to report that would reflect badly on [them] but they said that it would not, that it would show that three people were doing the work of four people.”
One of Rojas’ first concerns was the way in which Joanne Gonzalez was reprimanded for her unfair treatment of her employees. Gonzalez was the manager of the ULV Marriott workers at the time that these complaints were first made. Her removal from the managerial position was one of the first requests made of Marriott.
Although Gonzalez was removed from her position at the University, she was neither reprimanded for her actions, nor was she reviewed by Marriott, said Rojas. In fact, she was given the same position at another school without any conditions put on her employment.
“Firing [Gonzalez] was not an option,” said Marotta. “Brian [Worley] and I talked about eight months before the concerns were raised. We agreed that [Gonzalez’] managerial style, and her, I hesitate to use the word but, harsh treatment of employees needed to be changed. We planned to put her in a new environment.
“With [Gonzalez’s] background, terminating her was not an option for me.”
Marotta, though had no explanation for the lack of consequences for her actions at La Verne. Both Rojas and Coalition member Derek Vergara also raised questions concerning Gonzalez’s background.
Vergara cited several incidents that occurred when he was the director of Housing and Residential Life five years ago.
Said Vergara, voicing his opinion in the meeting, “She was rude to me, rude to my staff, rude to the students, and rude to her workers,” said Vergara. He also cited complaints that he made to Worley in 1995.
Another of the concerns that Rojas was most interested in addressing dealt with the fear employees had of retaliation when they voiced their mistreatment by Marriott. Of the 25 Marriott employees from last year, only eight have returned this year.
During the month and a half when treatment conditions first were called into question, and just prior to Gonzalez’s leaving, several employees were fired. The majority of these workers were illegally working in the United States, and Marotta cites this as the grounds for their terminations.
“There are INS regulations that we must adhere to,” said Marotta. “Our company policy is that we do not retain undocumented workers.”
“Keeping in contact with the ladies that were here working last semester, most of those ladies that were vocal don’t work here anymore,” said Rojas. “They were fired because of illegal papers. This has prompted the workers who have come to this campus to be in fear of the same kind of retaliation.”
Rojas believes that the investigation into the workers’ papers was prompted by the vocalization of employment concerns. Marotta, however denies that any retaliatory action was taken against vocal employees.
“I don’t see any of [Marriott’s actions] as retaliation,” he said.
Some of the steps taken by Marriott to improve treatment conditions include the implementation of the bonus plan for workers whose quality of work and attendance record were satisfactory. The bonus is expected to be around 50 cents on the hour. Marotta points out that all but one of the employees at La Verne will be receiving this bonus.
Marotta disputes the complaints made by employees about workload as well. He points out that workload is established using national benchmarks. The square footage requirements are then decided after examining each individual campus.
Another improvement made by Marriott is the change of the status of employees. A number of Marriott workers were seven hour employees. They have subsequently been made eight hour employees.
Marriott is also committed to continuing to pay time-and-a-half for any hours worked over an eight hour shift, as well as continuing the 3.5 percent pay increase annually.
“We will continue to monitor the issues of the employees,” said Marotta. “We’ll try to draw that out.”
Even with the promises made by Marotta, the Coalition is still concerned with the treatment of the Marriott workers.
“We’ve spent time in a room with a lot of these women and we found them to be very credible women,” said Prieto-Bayard. “It’s difficult for those of us that were involved in these discussions to discount that credibility that we, that I , hear in their stories, their pain, their sense of exploitation.”
Rojas remains committed to assisting the Marriott employees as much as he is able. He has asked that the Coalition for Diversity act as a support for those employees who wish to raise issues of treatment. He has said that he will not “let up” on this issue and remains dedicated to continuing his fight for the Marriott employees at La Verne.
Heather Baxter
