Wage fraud, nepotism alleged at University Place Hotel

A group of Portland State employees have filed grievances with the university claiming that their bosses stole their tips, demanded kickbacks and practiced nepotism—favoring family members for special treatment and advancement.

Vietnamese housekeepers who work at the PSU-owned University Place Hotel reached out to the labor union that represents them and other service employees on campus, Service Employee International Union Local 89, in March.

The union began an investigation and filed the first of the workers’ grievances with PSU’s Human Resources Department on April 12. At press time, 30 days had passed with no response from the university, prompting SEIU to “bump up” the complaint to the office of university President Wim Wiewel.

“There’s a little sweatshop going on right in the heart of our university,” said Marc Nisenfeld, the president of SEIU Local 89. “I would hope that they’d be a little more conscious of what’s going on in their own backyard.”

University Place General Manager Dennis Burkholder and Housekeeping Supervisor Kim Nguyet Thi Christian were both terminated by PSU on May 7.

“We did determine a loss of trust,” said Scott Gallagher, PSU’s communications director, of the staffing changes at the hotel. “We thought it’d be best to have a fresh start.”

The backstory

Gallagher said that in late February human resources received an anonymous letter detailing several of these allegations, primarily concerning supervisors at the University Place Hotel.

“[We] immediately put people on administrative leave,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher explained that the university’s investigation of the nepotism allegations revealed that only one supervisor was found to be related to the people she oversaw; she was consequently demoted.

By March, many of the workers had been waiting for weeks for the university to respond to requests for a translator.

“They got tired of it and came to the union,” said Bao Nguyen, an organizer with Service Employees International Union Local 503 and a Vietnamese speaker, adding that the workers’ complaints referenced incidents that dated as far back as 2006.

The union then filed a series of grievances with the university, some as recently as May 8.

The university interviewed 15 people, including anyone who was mentioned in the grievances. Bao said that he’s spoken to at least six people who’ve been affected; many of them were wary of speaking out for fear of termination.

Gallagher also said that PSU investigated claims of kickbacks, in which workers received manager-approved pay for hours they hadn’t worked—pay that was then demanded back by supervisory or managerial staff. Allegations of tip-stealing are also being investigated.

“We were not able to substantiate evidence of kickbacks,” Gallagher said.

Nisenfeld, the union chapter president, said that documentation exists to back up the workers’ claims. “I have no reason to not believe what we’ve been told by these workers,” he said.

What comes next?

The investigation has raised numerous questions about management practices in other departments at PSU.

“Things are going to happen,” Gallagher said. “We handled it the best way that we could.”

While most of the housekeeping staff are temporary workers hired under one-year contracts, more of them are joining the union. So far, 15 of the 21 workers have unionized.

Nisenfeld said that he’d like to get these grievances resolved within the next week or two, but admits that it may be some time before that happens.

“If the administration were to cooperate with us,” he said, “we’d wind it up a whole lot quicker.”