Due to issues raised by a Student and Labor Alliance (SALA) petition, Science and Engineering Quad custodial staff hours will be changed from graveyard shifts back to their original daytime hours.
SALA, a student group dedicated to supporting workers on campus, had circulated a petition to either restore the janitors’ daytime hours or raise wages to compensate for a more challenging 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. workday. SALA also called the situation an abuse of workers’ rights.
The contractor employing the janitors, DTZ, offered workers back their hours in response to “community and worker demands,” according to SALA.
SALA delivered the petition to Associate Director of Quad Operations Luke Thivierge a week before the decision to restore the original hours.
“With over 1800 student, staff, and faculty signatures, we sent a strong message that we stand behind all members of the Stanford community,” said SALA in an email sent to petition signers.
SALA members were also present at the meeting between DTZ representatives and workers when DTZ offered the original hours back.
The details of the change in janitors’ hours will be worked out between DTZ and its employees in the coming days, said Senior Director of Strategic Communications Brad Hayward.
“We believe it will be a win-win outcome that will continue to meet the university’s needs, and we appreciate the engagement of both DTZ and SALA in addressing the issue,” said Hayward in an email to the Daily.
SALA’s email warned, however, that Stanford’s labor practices continue to fall short in other ways, citing night shifts at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) and failures to meet contractual obligations to dining staff regarding workplace absences as problems that remain to be faced.
SALA is currently advocating for the restoration of janitors’ daytime hours to take effect before the end of the current academic year, said Cenobio Hernandez ’18, a SALA member.
The group also plans to take up the issue of night shifts at the GSB soon.
This article has been updated.
Contact Abigail Schott-Rosenfield at aschott ‘at’ stanford.edu.