When Sen. Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden) walks around the University of Vermont, where he is also an English professor, it’s not unusual for people to approach him with their complaints. He’s the majority leader in the Vermont State Senate, after all.

But the number of complaints spiked to around “10 times the normal rate” last week, the senator says, and the constituents approaching him weren’t students; they were employees of Sodexo Food Service, the French multinational company to which UVM and other Vermont colleges contract their dining services.

The workers, Baruth says, were complaining that Sodexo had informed them it would be cutting back many of their hours at the end of the calendar year, resulting in the loss of their health, dental and other benefits. They also alleged that the company had warned it would terminate any employees who went public with their complaints.

“They were told, pretty straight up, that they were going to lose health benefits and retirement,” Baruth says, suggesting that the Sodexo workers approached him in person out of fear the company might be monitoring their emails. 

In response, Baruth wrote a letter to Vermont Commissioner of Labor Annie Noonan requesting an investigation into the complaints.

“If true, these allegations would represent a very serious infringement on the rights of Sodexo workers not just on the UVM campus — where the company holds an exclusive contract for food services — but on various campuses of the state colleges as well,” Baruth said in the letter.

Charles Eichacker was a staff writer for Seven Days.

One reply on “Senator Urges Action On Sodexo Complaints”

  1. Well it’s not surprising.
    It’s sad that these people are now FORCED onto ObamaCare and the States versions which are just disasters. It should have been all the way or nothing at all, either keep the system we had or go to a total single payer system where your premiums are included in your tax… just make sure welfare and state benefits are all taxed just like regular income.
    This system of the government kinda being in control is just a disaster … I bet there a fair amount of people paying the penalty… it’s ultimately the cheapest and best option…
    As for Sodexo, they very much should have just lost the exclusive contracts for the state colleges and university.
    Let them have to be competitive with other food services that would like to rent space… These colleges should be renting out individual dining services to businesses that want to operate out of them.

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