Virginia cafeteria workers under deadline to choose their employer

HALIFAX, Va. — Cafeteria workers with Halifax County Public Schools have until April 15 to decide if they would like to become employees of Sodexo or if they had rather remain on the school system’s payroll.

All new cafeteria workers hired after June 30 automatically will become Sodexo employees.

Halifax County School Board members made this unanimous decision during a special called meeting Tuesday evening.

ED-4 trustee Cheryl Terry and ED-8 trustee Walter Potts were absent from the meeting.

Sodexo is a food service management company the school board partnered with in June under a one-year contract, and at their January school board meeting, the board voted to renew the contract.

During the school board’s previous work session and at the school board meeting in January, the board also reviewed the Sodexo employee benefits.

As Sodexo employees, hourly workers will be paid every two weeks, and hourly rates will not decrease.

Each Sodexo employee will qualify for unemployment benefits for scheduled school time off based on Virginia requirements.

Sodexo also conducts an annual evaluation for each employee for a merit-based pay increase.

Other Sodexo employee benefits include 10 “all purpose” days off yearly, and employees are eligible for 401K benefits.