Editor’s Note: The names Abe, Beth and Carol have been used in place of employees’ real names. These employees have asked to remain anonymous out of fear for losing their jobs.
Employees of Bon Appétit that work in the Fresh Food Café (FFC) are outraged at the treatment they have received from the new management company. Several employees have come forward to The News-Letter to disclose their grievances.
Bon Appétit replaced Aramark as the University’s dining provider at the start of the 2013–2014 school year. In addition to an increase in fresh food served in the FFC, the switch also brought a new management system that many employees find harsh.
“It really isn’t right, a lot of the stuff that’s going on. Ever since Bon Appétit came, a lot of the employees aren’t happy,” Abe said. “I’ve been here 35 years. I’ve seen a lot of companies come and go, and this is really the worst I’ve ever seen.”
The employees in the FFC are unionized through Hopkins. However, the school has its own contract with Bon Appétit, which began this fall. Many FFC employees have been with Hopkins for upwards of 20 years even though the management company is new to the University.
Among the grievances FFC workers report are that some 20 to 30 of their co-workers have been fired, and that only some of these former employees are called back on an ad hoc basis.
“I am worked more than I was at Aramark. All the food here is fresh, so it takes longer to cook. It’s more work, and I think cutting people was unfair. They were cut in a way that was hurtful to the operation. They cut people and are still short,” Gladys Burrell, an FFC employee, said.
Of the employees that Bon Appétit has retained, some have had their hours cut back. These cutbacks force employees to work harder to prepare fresh food in a shorter time frame, all for a paycheck that is cut, in some cases, by 20 percent.
“Scheduling could be done better. There are a lot of people who would like more hours who’ve been cut, but [the management] can’t afford to give them hours. The [change in] livelihood from [working] 37.5 hours to 30 hours a week is a big decrease in your life,” Burrell said. This particular decrease from 37.5 hours to 30 hours is the case for several employees, according to FFC staff members.
Many employees, who last year had two days off in a row, now have their days off split between Saturday and Tuesday instead of between Saturday and Sunday. Whether or not an employee receives consecutive days off is determined by his or her seniority in years as an employee. Even still, some employees who have worked in the University’s food service for over 20 years report that they do not receive this preference.
“I’ve been here 23 years and [Campus Executive Chef Robert Lavoie] won’t let me have two days off in a row. It’s his way or no way,” Beth said.
Lavoie, or “Chef Bob,” as his employees call him, declined to address the employees’ claims with The News-Letter. “It would be bad PR,” Lavoie said.
Employees contend that Lavoie’s demeanor is counterproductive to their work environment.
“He’s the worst person I ever worked for in my life. This is the worst company that’s ever been here in my 23 years [working here]. The conditions that we’re working under are not going by our contract. They’re not being fair to employees,” Beth said.
The FFC staff also complained of Lavoie’s angry and unprofessional behavior, particularly his frequent cursing.
“The things that come out of his mouth shouldn’t be said,” Beth said. Others agreed that there is a more overarching problem in the way Bon Appétit communicates with its employees.
“Sometimes the management doesn’t know how to talk to people. They should show us more courtesy,” Burrell said.
Staff members also complained that Bon Appétit has been lax in compensating its employees for Paid Time Off (PTO) days and vacation days, to which they are contractually entitled. The employees expressed difficulty in scheduling vacation days with their manager, Lavoie. Once they are able to take vacation days, staff members said it can take weeks to receive the agreed-upon pay.
“Several people have been told they don’t have vacation time,” Burrell said, even though FFC employees are entitled to an accrued amount of vacation and PTO days according to the legal parameters of their agreement with Bon Appétit.
On its website, the company promises sick days, vacation days and paid holidays to all its full-time employees.
“Our goal is to create an environment where all employees feel comfortable with fair and consistent treatment and equal opportunities,” Bon Appétit’s website states.
Yet FFC staff members’ claims stand in contrast with this statement.
“Any time you put a PTO date or a vacation date on the schedule it’s got to go through [Lavoie] in order to get your payroll. He has to approve it. Right now he can’t afford to have people off, so sometimes he doesn’t put the checks through for weeks,” Burrell said.
Bon Appétit declined to comment on specific claims.
“Unfortunately, we can’t discuss details about any individual personnel. I can tell you that we strive to provide a friendly, supportive work environment in which employees are encouraged to bring any concerns to management,” Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications for Bon Appétit, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Likewise, the Hopkins Office of Dining Programs touted Bon Appétit's record of encouraging open dialogue between management and employees.
"The Office of Dining Programs applauds the Bon Appetit standard of valuing their employees. Furthermore Hopkins Dining also supports and approves of Bon Appetit’s well documented open communication process for any employee to voice a concern to any level of the Bon Appetit company or through an anonymous reporting hotline. This process fosters a working environment that is both cooperative and respectful,” Hopkins Director of Dining Programs William Connor said.
Yet employees have expressed doubt that filing official complaints will do anything to improve their conditions. “If you grieve something, it can take a year to fix,” Abe said.
Bon Appétit organizes its daily operation differently than Aramark’s, and some employees do not find the new system satisfactory.
“I’m doing utility work. They used to have a person assigned just to [washing] pots. But now instead of having one person to do pots, [Lavoie’s] got one of us doing pots once a week. We should be able to concentrate more on one job,” Abe said.
There have also been complaints about physical workplace conditions, most notably the temperature in the kitchen.
“I’m just concerned about how cold it is in the back. I don’t think we should be working like that. You see a lot of cooks with hoodies on because it’s so cold. You can see icicles forming back there,” Beth said.
According to some, the mistreatment FFC staff members have received from the new management company has done more than just dent paychecks; it has damaged workplace morale.
“So far, Bon Appétit hasn’t done the right thing for its employees, and this makes it hard for us to be happy and keep smiling. We want to make a difference, but it’s hard to focus when you’re worrying about paying your bills,” Carol wrote in a statement to The News-Letter.
This article has been updated to include comment from the Hopkins Office of Dining Programs.
