By Caroline Boden
The Student Government Association at UH is in the process of creating a Student Worker Bill of Rights that would, among other things, include protections for student workers, increase minimum wage on campus and enhance the student worker experience.
After sending out a survey to employees, SGA is currently looking for trends to outline what should be in the document. If put into motion, UH will become the first university in the state of Texas to have a bill of rights for student workers on campus.
“In my talks with a lot of student workers, I heard some things that were concerning and some stories that need to be voiced,” said Student Body President Allison Lawrence. “I think the Student Worker Bill can offer some protection and be an educational piece for the university, departments that have student workers, and also for student workers to fully understand what their position is, how they should be treated, and what rights and responsibilities they have.”
SGA has worked with administration and finance at the university for the past two years and has made some progress by moving the minimum wage to $8 campuswide. They hope to gradually increase this amount annually.
“Students workers are often working because they have some type of bill to pay whether that be for groceries, their phone, any car payments, or rent,” said student worker Alisha Chamdal. “If we’re working so much, we should be getting paid enough to at least compensate for some of that while in school.”
This bill would also outline a standard stipendacross campus; currently, they vary widely. Jessica Hulett, Director of External Relations for SGA, said the discrepancy with pay is unfair to students.
“I think student workers get taken advantage of a lot by universities,” Hulett said. “They don’t get paid on time and they get paid less than they would in an external place. [Departments] take advantage of the fact that working on campus is convenient for you and assume you’ll do more work for less pay.”
Hulett has been a student worker for over a year and speaks from personal experience when she says the increase in pay is not apparent as it was intended to be.
“Last year I used to work 20 hours a week and then once we got moved up to $8, not just minimum wage ($7.25), [my supervisor and those in the department] were like ‘I’ll pay you this new amount, but you’ll only work 15 hours and yet do the same amount of accomplishments,’” Hulett said. “You’re not saying doing less amount of work; you’re saying ‘don’t clock in for as many hours so we won’t pay you for as many hours.’”
As they prepare for their presentation to the Student Fees Advisory Committee(SFAC), SGA hopes to complete this bill by the end of the semester and to begin putting it into place starting January 2020.
“This student worker bill of rights will work to help both departments and students and try and just educate them about what a student worker experience should be like, what responsibilities they have, what rights they have, and also things that are pertinent to them like tax information,” Lawrence said.
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