Published: September 28, 2009

A local union says Philadelphia School District food service workers might be owed millions in back pay, and members are calling for an investigation.

At the Philadelphia headquarters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), at 5th near Spring Garden Streets, a group of school district food service workers (above) cheered as officials of the Philadelphia Joint Board of Workers United and SEIU called for Mayor Nutter and City Council to investigate why some food service workers of the school district are being paid less than the minimum pay set by a 2005 city law.

That law requires companies doing business with the city to pay workers at least 150 percent of the prevailing state or federal minimum wage, whichever is higher.  But it is a matter of contention whether that law applies in this case, since the food service workers are under contract to the School District, which is a state agency, not the City of Philadelphia or its agencies.
  
Gayle Brown is a cook manager at the Houston School:

"We work hard taking care of these children, and we just want to be paid fairly."

The workers are scheduled to vote on Monday on whether they want Workers United/SEIU to begin representing their group.  Laura Moran is a community outreach coordinator:

"Right now it's in the workers hands, and they can make a choice between a union that fights for them or a union that doesn't, right?  But no matter what, we're calling for an investigation. The process has begun."