Culminating a three-year student effort to equalize compensation for custodial workers on campus, the University added 22 custodians who had previously worked for contracted companies to the University payroll early last month.The hiring signals an end to lobbying efforts by the Brandeis Labor Coalition to achieve parity-equal compensation for equal work-for custodial workers on campus.

Julie Miller '07, a member of the coalition, said administrators had been open-minded and cooperative throughout the BLC's campaign. Starting in the spring of 2005, the group obtained Student Union support and held a rally.

"I think it's like basically exactly what we wanted," she said. "It was a complete success."

Chief Operating Officer Peter French wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he "could not be happier" with the hirings.

"It is win-win result for everyone, and I am pleased that we were able to make this happen," he wrote.

The University made the initial decision to hire the workers directly in August 2005 while in negotiations over a new five-year contract with Service Employees International Union Local 615, the union representing the University's non-contracted custodians.

After the University's contract with Hurley of America and SJD Inc. expired on July 31, the University rehired the custodians directly, said Mark Collins, vice president for campus operations.

Custodians on the University payroll, as well as those hired through private contractors, began receiving the same pay last year after the University asked those contractors to raise the salaries of their workers from $11.60 to $14.63 per hour. The current pay rate for University custodians stands at $15.11 per hour as of July 1.

"It's fairer than fair to say that we fulfilled that commitment to equalize the wages a year ago and bring these people on board a year later," Collins said.

He said the wage increases will total approximately "several hundred thousand dollars," and the money will come out of the University's operating budget.

"That's money well-spent to do the right thing," he said.

Efforts to bring parity to custodial workers on campus date back to April 2004, when the Union Senate threw its support behind the BLC initiative. Following that meeting, the administration approved what it called a "statement of principles" to better oversee that the rights of both the University and outsourced workers were upheld.

In April 2005, 59 faculty members signed a petition published as an advertisement in the Justice that endorsed a change in pay structure-a development that bolstered the BLC's campaign.

In accordance with its SEIU contract, the University first offered the new positions to its original employees before the new workers were able to pick shifts. Seven custodians swapped or took additional shifts, said Mary Sharrigan, the assistant director of facilities, who worked with the Department of Human Resources to institute the transition.

"We started out and ended up with 22 new positions, but the shifts were a little bit different than the folks had been working," she said.

Collins said the process of adding 22 workers to the custodial staff was a difficult task, made harder by the onset of a new academic year.

"The rubber hits the road now that students are back and classes are in session and we're running full time," he said. "But I'm optimistic.