SEIU: Sodexo to Face Second Trial Over Violations of U.S. Labor Law Including Spying and Using Campus Police to Interrogate Workers

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the second time this year the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has determined there is enough evidence to take Sodexo to trial for allegedly violating U.S. labor law.

The latest trial stems from incidents at Good Shepherd Hospital and Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania. After an investigation, the NLRB found there was enough evidence to pursue charges against Sodexo for allegedly spying on its employees while they were engaged in union activity at the two hospitals. A trial has been ordered for October.

In April, the New Orleans regional director of the National Labor Relations Board issued a formal complaint against Sodexo for allegedly violating U.S. labor law by, "interfering with, restraining and coercing employees," in the exercise of their rights.

Sodexo is being charged with using Tulane University police as its agent to interrogate employees regarding their union activity, threatening its employees with discharge because they signed union authorization cards, interrogating its employees about their union activities, creating new rules which were discriminately applied to union supporters to, "discourage its employees from assisting the union," and firing an employee because of her union support. A trial date has been set for Sept. 12, 2011.

BACKGROUND:
Sodexo, despite making more than a billion dollars in profits in 2010, is criticized by its workers in the United States for paying them poverty wages and for not offering affordable healthcare options. SEIU estimates that in 2008, two-thirds of Sodexo's nonmanagerial employees in the United States were not covered by health insurance offered by the company.

Eighty-seven percent of Sodexo workers in the United States are not represented by any union; that's 80,000 workers in the United States. Of the small percentage that does belong to a union, nearly half belong to SEIU, making SEIU the largest union for Sodexo workers in North America.

Sodexo workers in the United States have been fighting to win the right to bargain collectively with Sodexo for almost two years.

In addition to workplace violations, Sodexo's business has been in the public eye for questions about their financial accountability. The New York attorney general entered into a $20 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit in which Sodexo was accused of cheating schools and universities out of discounts obtained on their clients' behalf.

SOURCE Service Employees International Union

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