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UW reaches settlement with janitors

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UW-Madison has reached a settlement with a group of janitors who were singled out during a school-employee background investigation because they had Hispanic-sounding names.

In the settlement late last week, the university agreed to pay $24,000 over 18 months to the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin, which will establish a relief fund for the workers who quit or were fired after having their work documents challenged last spring.

The settlement also includes payment of the workers’ legal fees.

UW administrators admitted that janitors with Hispanic-sounding names were investigated after a few refund checks made out to Hispanic janitors were returned, revealing invalid Social Security numbers.

The resulting firing of the janitors resulted in accusations by Hispanic organizations in the community and on campus that UW had partaken in racial profiling.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission agreed and recommended that UW take more steps to ensure workers not become discriminated against in the future.

The workers want the settlement money, which UW contends is a grant, to go toward the creation of a new center to assist immigrant workers and protect them from workplace abuse, said Jonathon Rosenblum, an attorney for the workers and their union.

“The workers would like to make a statement that is much more symbolic,” Rosenblum told The Capitol Times. “They want other workers to have much more control over their future and defend themselves against violations of their rights.”

University administrators said they are supportive of the new center and its goals.

“If we could bring closure to the issue on a community basis, that would make sense,” said Casey Nagy, executive assistant to UW Chancellor John Wiley. “We would like to see this succeed. This was an opportunity to help that center get off the ground and operate, and bring closure to this particular episode.”

UW has also taken steps to develop new policies toward dealing with Social Security number questions. The new policies state that specific employees, as well as a certain profile of employees, will be checked only when there is a reasonable question about their number.