The Department of Administration (DOA) contracted a consultant to consider the possible savings of privatizing University of Wisconsin custodians in upcoming years.

The consultant suggested replacing state janitorial workers with private laborers throughout the state in order to save money.

DOA spokesperson Scott Larrivee said the change would not affect UW in the near future and stands currently as only a recommendation.

“We were looking at all sorts of ways to manage our buildings; one part was that we have [a] study done, and one part said there might be potential saving in custodial services,” Larrivee said. “We really have some other stuff we are working on.”

Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration at UW, echoed Larrivee. Bazzell said he saw nothing in the budget about contracting private custodians.

If UW employed private custodians in the future, Bazzell said the motivation would be to lower student costs, not increase them.

“I am not sure if [it] would have an effect,” Bazzell said. “I would assume that would be the motivation: to save the state money.”

According to Bazzell, many custodial staffs in state buildings already underwent privatization more than a decade ago.

Larrivee said state buildings such as the Gef-1 and the Risser Justice Center in Madison currently have privately contracted custodians.

However, Anne Habel of Local 171, a union representing some of the custodians working in state buildings, said privately contracted custodians would perform lower-quality work and boost costs.

Hiring private workers for less money would push the workers to do lower-quality work, according to Habel. Thus, costs would rise resulting from increased complaints. Habel also said this could possibly hike student tuition costs.

“Many custodians are in place where student fees are already included,” Habel said. “Experience has shown that cost has increased.”

According to Habel, there are 1,450 custodians statewide, 550 at UW alone. Change in the state employment to privately contracted employees could greatly affect custodians and their families.

Richard Thayer, one of eight assistant directors of UW housekeeping, said management and supervisors would also feel effects.

“We would be greatly affected,” Thayer said. “It would hurt to see us lose our staff.”

The DOA would ultimately decide whether to employ private custodians at the university, Bazzell said. However, he added UW administration would assess the quality of service and the impact on employees with the DOA before the change would take place, if at all.

According to Thayer, there is no way of knowing if or when the shift to private custodians would occur.

“We just do our jobs,” Thayer said. “These things just come up.”