The new management of the DU Bookstore did not offer a severance package to employees who decided to leave and changed employees’ job titles, according to a letter sent to the Clarion.

The Clarion learned of the changes for the bookstore employees from an anonymous letter sent last month. The letter, which accused the university of violating its own honor code and forcing employees to work for Follett Higher Education Group, was signed “Concerned Bookstore Employees.” The Clarion was unable to confirm who specifically wrote the letter; however, interviews with current and resigned bookstore employees confirmed some of the information written in the letter is true, such as the change in job titles and DU not offering employees a severance package.

The bookstore was outsourced last month to Follett, assuming management of bookstore operations, including sales and inventory.

The change in employee status and the lack of severance were also confirmed by both Amy King, director of DU Human Resources Department, and Brent Smith, regional director of Follett.

“Employees were not offered severance because they were offered a job with Follett,” said King.

King said two employees chose to resign and another two chose to take other positions within the university.

The Clarion confirmed at least one other employee resigned earlier in the year.

Follett offered one-year contracts to bookstore employees, some of whom have worked for DU for a dozen or more years.

When contacted, Smith confirmed that employees were offered a position for a minimum of one year in a contract negotiated between Follett and DU late last year. However, he said Follett has no intention of laying off those workers after the contract terminates.

“We’re not going to come back a year from now and say, ‘Okay, year’s up – you guys are all gone,'” he said. “That’s not how we operate.”

Smith also said some salaried workers did become wage workers. He said Follett’s job titles are different, and the company tried to offer employees jobs that best fit their skill set.

For example, some bookstore employees had the job title of “purchaser” before Follett took over management. Since Follett has its own purchasers who work out of Chicago, those employees were offered different positions such as general merchandise manager or team lead for merchandise.

“We [at Follett] have different job titles, and we have different responsibilities,” Smith said. “We offered every single person a new job, and it may be doing something totally different than what they were doing [before the outsource], but we offered them all positions working at the store.”

Smith said the changes are because Follett is centralized in Chicago and the company does work such as accounting and buying from that location.

“Some of these people have been here for decades and they’re used to doing things one way,” said Smith. “Our goals are different.”

The letter also claimed employees who wanted to resign would lose their tuition, sick and vacation benefits.

King said tuition benefits, which allow employees, their spouses and their dependents to enroll in courses at DU with reduced or no tuition charges, were negotiated with Follett prior to the transition for those who chose to remain employed under the new management. However, she said employees who chose to resign would lose the tuition benefits.

King also said any sick time that was accrued by employees was lost after the transition, but vacation benefits, in accordance with Colorado law, were paid out to all employees, whether they chose to resign or not.

“We did not pay out sick time because we don’t in any other situation either,” said King. “Vacation was paid out, again, by Colorado law.”

Smith said Follett tried to be sensitive to the change for employees. He said Follett offered the bookstore employees the same level of seniority they had with DU when they made the transfer. If an employee had worked for DU for 20 years, Follett would treat that employee as if they worked for them for 20 years and give them benefits based on that, according to Smith.

However, employees said in the letter they were in the “upper tier of university benefits” and have “lost all of those.”

Additional reporting by Sarah Ford, Assistant News Editor