Employee files complaint against the University

A Pitt night-shift custodian filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment… A Pitt night-shift custodian filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Feb. 27 against Pitt’s Facilities Management department.

Annette F. Butko’s complaint of racial and sexual discrimination resulted from, what she claims, was her wrongful termination on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 22.

She did not work Monday, Feb. 19, because she had requested the day off more than a month in advance, according to her EEOC complaint.

Within the next two days, Judith L. Macey, an administrator in the department of religious studies on the 26th floor of the Cathedral, lodged a complaint with Facilities Management senior coordinator Philip C. Hieber III. Macey said that room 2628, a classroom in the department, had unacceptably dirty doors and walls, and that the restroom was too dirty to use.

“The bathroom hadn’t been cleaned in weeks, and the classroom hadn’t been cleaned in a year,” Macey said. “If she was doing any cleaning up here, there were no signs of it.”

On Wednesday night, Feb. 21, custodial supervisor Randy S. Schmotzer approached Butko, who was assigned to clean the 21st to 37th floors, about Macey’s complaint.

According to Butko’s EEOC filing, she and a fellow employee cleaned the classroom and bathroom despite the late-night presence of a faculty member on the floor.

Later that night, Butko says Schmotzer told her that the bathrooms were still filthy, then fired her for not completing her work. Butko said she was told that she had passed her work evaluation just two weeks before.

Upon termination, Butko took nine photographs of the restroom in question on the morning of her termination, and no excessive filth can be seen. The photos, which Butko gave to The Pitt News, show a clean toilet, floor and walls, filled paper towel and toilet paper holders, and clean water fountain and sink.

“After I complained they cleaned it,” Macey said. “But do they maintain it? No.”

Butko said she never received any written confirmation of her release, nor was she told the specific reason why she was let go.

Schmotzer would not comment on the incident.

“You want to talk about cleaning, I’ll talk about cleaning, that’s it,” he said.

Butko said she contacted Pitt Labor Relations through the University AlertLine, a 24-hour hotline for faculty and staff to report illegal or unfair practices in the workplace, on the same day she filed with the EEOC. She said she has yet to hear a response from the University.

Ronald W. Frisch, associate vice chancellor of human resources, would not comment specifically on the incident.

“I don’t think we pass over people just to pass over people. We hire the best people to do the job,” he said. “A temporary assignment is an opportunity to assess someone and give them an audition on the job.”

The EEOC also would not confirm Butko’s filing. Kurt Jones, a spokesperson for the EEOC, said that all complaints remain confidential unless they reach arbitration.

The EEOC, to resolve a case, investigates the person’s claim and will then decide whether or not there is a violation of the law. The commission can then mediate an agreement or settle the case between the employee and employer, dismiss the case, or try to conciliate the case, unless one of the parties chooses to take it to federal court.

Former temporary employee questions protections

Butko, a former temporary custodian on the night shift in the Cathedral of Learning, has no protection under the University’s contract with the Service Employees International Union, Local 3. Facilities Management’s full-time custodians must belong to the SEIU3 and work under contract.

The current union contract went into effect on Jan. 1, 2006, and remains valid until Dec. 31, 2010.

Yet the contract states: “The University agrees that in hiring temporary workers or new employees to fill vacancies, it will give first consideration to individuals who have previously performed work for the University.”

Butko, whose sister and mother worked as a custodian and in housekeeping for Pitt in the past, claims Facilities Management repeatedly passed her over for a full-time, non-temporary position, while they did hire other employees like fellow custodian Sandra M. Grissom, who works on the second floor of the Cathedral cleaning classrooms and the women’s restroom.

Grissom said she was hired on the same day as Butko, Aug. 14, 2006, and was given full-time status on Nov. 16.

“I thought, how can they hire her and not me?” Butko, who is white, said in her written statement to the EEOC. She claims that not one white female has been given a full-time custodial position in Facilities Management since she began work at Pitt.

Pitt spokesperson John Fedele said the University cannot comment on matters of personnel.

In the six months Butko was employed by Facilities Management, her wage increased from a starting salary of $10.74 per hour to $11.03 per hour without benefits.

Full-time Facilities Management cleaners in school buildings at Pitt receive a 2007 starting wage of $15.48 per hour, according to the SEIU3 contract. They also receive medical insurance coverage, retirement plans, sick leave and paid holidays and personal days.

The SEIU3 contract protects temporary employees working on summer projects in the Housing Division of Facilities Management from prolonged non-unionized work at the University. The contract states that these employees may not work as temporaries for longer than 750 hours.

Nothing in the contract protects temporary employees, like Butko, outside of the Housing Department. Butko was a temporary employee since her Aug. 14, 2006, hire date, and she worked an eight-hour shift five days a week. She logged a total of 1,020 non-unionized hours.

“The spirit of this is you don’t have people classified as temporary forever,” Tom Hoffman, an SEIU3 spokesperson at the union’s Pittsburgh office, said. “They’re not receiving benefits; that’s just not fair.”

But Frisch said that the University never guarantees permanent jobs to temporary employees.

“Our preference would be that no temporary employee would work noomit? CH more than 1,000 hours on an assignment,” he said.

William O. Beu represents full-time union members at Pitt as a shop steward. He also works as a groundskeeper on campus.

“I think in life, nothing’s fair,” he said. “But I think Facilities Management is doing the best job they can in dealing with employees.

“There’s going to be some bias, but that’s human nature.”