In an effort to avoid another deficit year for the department, Campus Facilities will combine two shifts of custodial workers into one daytime shift beginning in December.
When the current 60 nighttime custodians switch to the daytime shift, the custodial staff will consist of roughly 145 custodians working 4 a.m. to noon. Custodial coverage from 4 p.m. to midnight will be eliminated. This cost-cutting measure will reduce the nighttime employees’ salaries by 70 cents an hour, which totals about $1,000 per year per employee.
Despite the decreased salaries, this solution allows the department to keep all custodial staff.
Additionally, some currently vacant positions will no longer be filled. These changes will help cut department costs by $100,000 while saving all workers’ jobs, MU spokesman Christian Basi said.
“It’s an acceptable alternative to laying people off,” he said.
This year has not been the first to see budget cuts in the custodial system. The department recently eliminated the positions of on-call janitors, putting more pressure on custodians to get the same job done with fewer workers.
“Now there will be more custodians on one shift to spread the work out,” Campus Facilities spokeswoman Karlan Seville said. “If someone isn’t available who normally cleans a certain building, they’ll have more people to pull for them.”
By combining custodial shifts, the department hopes to improve communication among employees. Where the daytime and nighttime janitors rarely interacted, they will now be joining to create what Basi said will be a more efficient group.
Not only will the change improve communication among the custodial staff, but between building coordinators and custodians. Seville said that currently, building coordinators don’t have access to communicate with the nighttime janitorial staff.
“With the change to one custodial shift, the building coordinators will have the opportunity from 8 a.m. onward to meet with the custodian in charge of their building, and talk about what work they need to focus on,” Seville said.
Campus Facilities remains optimistic that this is the best solution to address the need for cuts within the custodial budget. After ending last year $110,000 in debt, this plan will get the department back on track without compromising workers or services for the university.
They expect the change to occur seamlessly, with no noticeable changes to campus life.
“We don’t anticipate any challenges or significant impact during those hours,” Basi said.
Although the custodial employees do not have any security responsibilities, they will no longer be able to keep on extra set of eyes on campus buildings at night. The MU Police Department has full confidence the transition will not result in any significant changes, and no campus conditions will be compromised.
MU Police Captain Brian Weimer said there will be no change in nighttime duties, and security will continue as normal.
“There will still be officers on patrol at night, and faculty members in buildings,” Weimer said. “It’s still the job of students and faculty to report any incidents and help take care of the community.”
