{"id":29036,"date":"2015-09-25T11:16:44","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T11:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=29036"},"modified":"2015-09-25T11:16:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T11:16:44","slug":"measure-to-make-school-lunch-workers-full-time-government-employees-passes-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29036","title":{"rendered":"Measure To Make School Lunch Workers Full-time Government Employees Passes Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. THOMAS — Senator Kurt Vialet has been advocating for school lunch workers ever since becoming a lawmaker. In April<\/a><\/span>, Vialet told The Consortium that\u00a0workers who have been receiving part-time salaries because they are limited to work only 6.5 hours a day, will become full-time employees in the incoming school year.<\/p>\n

The confirmation came following a discussion Vialet had with Governor Kenneth Mapp during a meeting the same month.\u00a0The former educator said he raised the topic for discussion and not only did Mapp agree, the governor said he \u201cwill be moving, effective the next school year (August, 2015), to make sure that those employees become full-time members of the government of the Virgin Islands,\u201d Vialet said.<\/p>\n

And at an all-day Senate session that went into the early hours of Thursday morning, Vialet mentioned that $1.2 million was added through an amendment to the government’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget, “to make that entire school lunch program becomes whole (instead of part-time),” and “to ensure that those employees become contributing members to GERS, to be able to acquire health insurance,” Vialet said.<\/p>\n

Vialet called the amendment “very significant,” and revealed that funding was also included in the budget for at least one maintenance worker at each of the territory’s schools.<\/p>\n

“When we conducted the school tours<\/a><\/span>, we saw a lot of minor items that if there was just one person assigned, it could have been fixed,” he said.<\/p>\n

The freshman senator had been championing the school lunch workers\u2019 cause upon being sworn into office in January, and later that month issued a press release expressing frustration with the current situation.<\/p>\n

Vialet outlined a number of reasons why cafeteria workers,\u00a0who clock 6.5 hours a day at minimum wage, and are denied\u00a0the 1.5 hours that would qualify them as full-time employees, should receive salaried pay. Among them:<\/p>\n