Lack of papers causes job loss for 6 workers at Santa Clara

By Sarah Yokubaitis

Six subcontracted janitorial employees have been dismissed by their employer from jobs at Santa Clara following university concerns over missing documents.

Fourteen employees of Diversified Maintenance Services were asked to provide documentation -- including Social Security numbers -- after a "routine review" of DMS paperwork showed that they had not completed background checks required to work at Santa Clara.

Six employees refused to comply and were subsequently dismissed, according to their union representative Denise Solis, who said the workers filed a complaint with the union after their dismissal.

DMS managing partner Ross Pike declined comment on behalf of the company.

DMS subcontracts janitorial services to the university. Green shirts with DMS logos differentiate DMS employees from facilities workers, who the university employs directly.

Robert Warren, vice president for administration and finance, said three DMS workers presented the necessary paperwork, and five did not return to work. The remaining six refused to show documentation and filed complaints with the Service Employees International Union Local 1877, according to Solis.

"It is a safety and risk management issue," said Warren. "Our reason for wanting this information is to be certain we don't have someone with a criminal record working out here. It's never been an issue before. I don't know what the breakdown was."

The missing documentation was discovered April 6 by university administrative staff during a routine review of paperwork, according to Warren.

The university notified DMS that necessary employment paperwork had not been completed. Sometime after the initial notification, the DMS employees at Santa Clara were given 72 hours to provide proof of documentation.

The university was notified of the problem with some workers' papers on May 7, according to Warren.

He said the subcontracted employees had worked at the university for less than a year and are paid the living wage, set by the city of San Jose at $11.51 per hour. Workers with Santa Clara placements make 64 cents more per hour than other DMS janitorial employees. Santa Clara pays all employees, including subcontractors, at least the San Jose living wage.

The facilities department declined to release information about the average hourly wage for facilities workers, who are directly employed by the university.

DMS has been under contract with the university since 2001 and provides janitorial staff for non-residential buildings and to residence halls during emergencies on nights and weekends.

When the university learned the workers had not completed background checks, Warren said their understanding was the six workers would be sent to alternate job sites, rather than being dismissed for inability to comply with the university's policies.

However, according to Solis, the workers were dismissed, instead of being reassigned as DMS had promised.

"We requested that DMS put them in an alternate location, but they fired them," Solis said. "They claimed that they did not have the proper documentation to work."

The issue remains unresolved, and SEIU Local 1877 is currently preparing a legal case against DMS, Solis said.

"We currently have arguments that are being taken to arbitration," said Solis.

According to Solis, DMS found that the 14 employees were in a Social Security "no-match" situation when they ran the necessary background checks. A no-match occurs when Social Security numbers do not correspond to the name of the person using it.

However, Solis said that a no-match does not imply that the workers are in the United States illegally or without Social Security documentation.

"That can happen for a number of reasons -- misspellings, mistyped, marriage or name change," said Solis. "A lot of employers use this to assume that workers are undocumented, but it is not a basis to assume that."

Warren emphasized that the paperwork problems were not a result of the workers' immigration status.

"This is a routine matter of safety and security and risk management and has nothing from our perspective to do with immigration," said Warren. "I think the timing of it couldn't be worse, since we discovered it while this whole issue of immigration was on everyone's mind.

"This is an issue that is right at the forefront right now, and some people jumped to conclusions that were not accurate."

Rev. Carol Been of Working Partnerships USA, who has been active as an advocate for the dismissed workers, said that the university was merely enforcing established policy.

"They were doing due diligence around their policy of background checks," she said.

Been also praised the university's response to the situation.

"They weren't interested in the immigration issue, they were interested in DMS treating them correctly," she said.

Santa Clara Community Action Program organizer Carlos Jimenez has met with university and DMS officials on behalf of the DMS workers. Jimenez questioned the role that immigration played in the background check policy that resulted in the workers' dismissal.

"Either the university has to be more strict in that sense, or it's connected to immigration," he said.

Contact Sarah Yokubaitis at (408) 554-4546 or syokubaitis@scu.edu.