Sproul workers unsatisfied with payment settlement

  CATHY JUN Third-year psychology student Alice
Tzeng is one of many students who work the front desks at
residence halls.

By Michaele Turnage
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sproul Hall front desk employees conceded defeat this spring
break, after accepting gift certificates in place of monetary
compensation they were promised for work done last summer.

Employees accepted a settlement that awarded them each $75 in
gift certificates instead of the $2,000 in promised compensation
they were supposed to split amongst themselves.

The group of 12 student employees had been trying for seven
months to get the money they were promised while acting as bellboys
during orientation sessions last summer, carrying 800 to 1,000
pieces of luggage each day to students’ rooms.

“We were promised some sort of compensation for doing
luggage,” said Jenny Lee, a third-year psychology
student.

Although housing officials did not verify the amount, they did
confirm that compensation was being negotiated.

Students hired as part-time summer front desk employees expected
to perform regular clerical work, including answering phones,
providing information to visitors and sorting mail. But, from the
beginning of summer, employees said they worked 30 to 50 hours and
were instructed to do work not specifically included in their job
description.

“We knew that if they told us a room was dirty, that we
had to go and clean it up,” said Van Chau, a second-year
biology student.

According to Emily Richards, a third-year political science
student who worked the front desk over the summer, the regular
housekeeping staff wasn’t big enough to handle cleaning all
the rooms in Sproul during the one-hour turnover period when one
set of students moved out and another set moved in. The
administration called on front desk employees to pick up the
slack.

An understaffed front desk meant more hours for employees,
workers said.

“I had a paycheck that had 108 hours on it over two
weeks,” Chau said.

But housing officials didn’t hire the workers as full-time
employees to avoid having to give them paid benefits, students
said.

Front desk employees are “casual, restricted employees,
which is a UC-wide campus classification,” said Barbara
Wilson, Housing and Hospitality Services area residence hall
manager. This means student employees aren’t supposed to work
more than 19.5 hours per week during the school year, but this
policy doesn’t apply during the summer, Wilson said.

When orientation sessions began in July, employees were required
to work up to 10 extra hours each week to register orientation
students and take their luggage to their rooms.

“Our staff is required to do various tasks that vary from
helping someone with bags to directing visitors,” said North
Area Manager Hassan Ghamlouch. “These tasks are not really
specified in the job description.”

Employees said they began complaining to then-Sproul Hall
Manager Roy Galan about the extra work.

Employees said they performed luggage work in the height of the
summer heat in Sproul, which does not have air conditioning.

“There was luggage maybe twice the size of one of our
staff,” Chau said. “I’m surprised no one fainted.
We were sweating bullets.”

Undesirable work conditions were made worse by irate management
that was not above pushing employees around, employees said.

Josh Gonzalez, a second-year anthropology student who attended
summer school, returned from class in school clothes and had
stopped by the office to check his mail. While there, another
supervisor asked him to do a favor that would require him to go
into the visible area of the front desk, though employees are not
allowed in the visible area when not in uniform.

According to Gonzalez, Ghamlouch yelled at and pushed him into
the back room.

“He basically shoved me into the back room,” said
Gonzalez, who never reported the incident. “I couldn’t
believe he put his hands on me.”

Ghamlouch denied the allegation.

“I never pushed anybody into the back room,”
Ghamlouch said.

Employees also complained they weren’t receiving
sufficient breaks.

According to the Industrial Welfare Commission Order 5, Sections
11 and 12, state law mandates that employees must be given a
10-minute paid rest period for every four hours of work. Also,
according to Labor Code 512 of the California Department of Labor,
employees must be given an unpaid 30 minute lunch if they work more
than five hours.

“I don’t recall any time when they were like
“˜Oh yeah, take a 10-minute break,'” said Chau,
who recalls days when she worked for 9 hours straight.

Employees also said they were given as little as 15 minutes for
lunch.

Housing officials could not immediately be reached to respond to
the allegations.

Galan, who sympathized with the students, met with Ghamlouch and
Alfred Nam, associate director of rooms operation and
Ghamlouch’s boss, soon after to talk about compensating front
desk employees. Halfway through orientation, Galan notified
employees the Orientation Program would give Sproul Hall $1 for
each piece of luggage they took to a room.

Projected revenue from the luggage operation was $4,000, half of
which would be given to front desk employees to split among
themselves, employees said.

Of the $2,000 compensation, half would be used to pay employees
for extra work hours, while the other half would be given to them
in some non-monetary form. But employees still hadn’t seen
any compensation by the end of summer.

“If none of us wrote the letter, it would have been an
empty promise,” said Lee, who organized employees at the
beginning of winter quarter to write a letter to Ghamlouch,
requesting a meeting about getting their compensation.

The first meeting was unproductive and left students angered.
“I felt cheated and lied to,” Chau said.

The group then went to Nam and Nancy Barbee of the UCLA Ombuds
office, who moderated the March 13 meeting.

Nam, who could not be reached for comment, initially offered
employees $25 each in gift certificates or a pizza party of equal
value, students said. Employees told Barbee they felt they had been
insulted. Soon after, Nam increased the offer to $75 in gift
certificates.

“The amount given to us was so much less than we thought
it would have been,” Chau said.

But housing officials were pleased with the outcome.

“I think we ended on a positive note,” Ghamlouch
said.

Although some employees have already accepted the settlement,
they are not satisfied with the outcome.

“We understood that housing didn’t have the
money,” Lee said. “It would’ve been okay if it
was just a miscommunication, but there were lies
involved.”