Contracted dining workers at two Harvard schools received welcome news this week as Harvard Medical School announced it would not pursue 16 layoffs as planned, and Harvard Law School announced it would continue paying contracted dining employees and eventually bring them in-house.
The University reduced support for employees covered by its emergency excused absence policy, which had sustained pay and benefits for all employees whose work had been suspended due to the pandemic, on Jan. 15. Idled contracted employees could no longer receive pay and direct employees could receive up to 70 percent of their pay, though continued application of the original policy was up to each Harvard school.