The ASSU Undergraduate Senate passed an advocacy bill last night recommending that the University remove six of seven restrictions to its living wage policy for subcontracted workers.

“The University says that they have a living wage for subcontracted workers, but it contains restrictions which have the effect of excluding people from the living wage,” said senator Lisa Llanos ‘09, who co-authored the bill.

To be eligible for the current living wage policy, subcontracted workers must meet several qualifications. They must provide services to Stanford’s core campus (excluding the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) that might otherwise have been provided by Stanford employees. They must also be employed for at least 30 hours per week for a period of six months, or whatever period the contractor specifies for its employers to be considered “regular employees.”

Their contracts must also exceed $100,000 in aggregate value and must have a duration of greater than one year. Their work must be performed for the University directly — excluding tenants or other entities conducting business on Stanford-owned land, including Stanford Hospital. The policy also excludes subcontracted workers who belong to any kind of collective bargaining relationship.

The ASSU recommended the removal of all of these restrictions, “maintaining only the qualification that the employer of affected workers have an agreement with Stanford University,” according to the bill.

The advocacy bill represents the latest development in a campaign that began in May 2003, when a five-day hunger strike held by the Stanford Labor Action Coalition resulted in the formation of a Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) to advise President John Hennessy on workplace policies, including the living wage.

The PAC submitted a report to Hennessy in June 2004 criticizing the University’s living wage policy.

“If Stanford University operates a ‘living wage’ policy, it should not attach so many conditions to its applicability that it has the effect of excusing many contracted workers from that policy,” the report reads. “A ‘living wage’ policy that appends a string of conditions creates inequities among similar workers and risks giving the unfortunate impression that Stanford’s employment policies do not really mean what they are proclaimed to be.”

The PAC recommended that the University remove three restrictions to its living wage policy and investigate and possibly remove two others.

Hennessy responded to the PAC’s recommendations in the winter of 2005 by referring them to the Human Resources Department, which subsequently rejected the suggestions and retained all seven restrictions on the living wage policy.

The bill passed by the ASSU last night advocated the removal of six of these seven restrictions.

The bill also recommended that “the implementation of the broadened policy be decided and executed in a transparent and democratic process involving workers and students.”

The Senate also passed over 30 special fees bills at its meeting last night. Several senators noted that the process went more smoothly than it had in recent years, and that there were no dissenting groups.