Lunch lady wants raise and benefits
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

MILLSTONE - A cafeteria worker who has been a school district employee for 20 years will not get a raise this year.

Phyllis Eaton, who has lived in Millstone Township for 30 years, also just learned she will now have to partially pay for health benefits.

"After I've devoted my time and years to the children in my hometown of 30 years," she said, "for the last few years I might be working, this is how they feel about me?"

At the Aug. 28 Board of Education meeting, Eaton, who is divorced and will turn 64 next month, said she feels discriminated against. She said she is not upset about the money, but rather about the principle behind now having to pay for some of her health benefits.

She told the board that previous school officials grandfathered her contract with the school district since it hired her prior to hiring a new food-service provider in the 1990s that supplies its own workers. The company, which still services the district, is called Nutri-Serve Food Management Inc.

According to Superintendent Mary Anne Donahue, when the district contracted with Nutri-Serve, the Board of Education asked to keep the five cafeteria workers who were already employed by the district, and Nutri-Serve agreed to the arrangement.

At present, only two of those five cafeteria workers are still employed, according to Donahue, and Eaton is one of them.

Business Administrator Brian Boyle discussed Nutri-Serve's contract renewal with the Board of Education during an August 2005 meeting. At that time, he said the salaries and benefits of the two district-appointed cafeteria workers were typically included in the bottom line of the Nutri-Serve contract. He said the employees were usually guaranteed a six-hour day and raises.

Boyle also said at that time that Nutri-Serve felt the cost of the two district employees was too cost-prohibitive so the company would not include their increased salaries and benefits in the new contract. In addition, Nutri-Serve had reported a net loss for the previous year of $7,843.

Donahue said Eaton currently works six hours a day for a total of 180 school days. She earns $13 per hour, which amounts to $14,040 per year. She said Eaton will now have to contribute approximately $165 per year toward her health, prescription and dental benefits.

According to Donahue, Eaton's salary and benefits package is better than it would be if she were a Nutri-Serve employee.

"Like all other nontenured staff, she is hired [by the school district] on a yearly basis," Donahue said.

According to Eaton, cafeteria workers were never permitted to join the union. She said union members who were hired by the school district at the same time she was do not have to pay for any of their benefits.

Donahue said the Millstone Township Education Association does not represent cafeteria workers.

The district renews its contract with Nutri-Serve annually, according to Donahue, and goes out to bid and examines proposals from other companies every five years.

When asked how many Nutri-Serve employees currently work in the district's schools, Donahue said she is not sure.