To allay fears and dispel rumors of imminent layoffs of food service employees in NYC hospitals, Health and Hospitals Corporation’s (HHC) President Benjamin Chu issued a memo to his employees explaining how the agency’s proposal to lease its cook-chill facility to a private company would affect them.

In the December 3 memo, Chu asserted: “I want to first state that no full-time unionized employees will lose his or her job as a result of this initiative... HHC will transfer management of its dietary operations to a food service vendor. The vendor will install new equipment and technology. The reason for this initiative is a guaranteed minimum annual savings to the corporation of $10 million per year. However, the agreement requires the vendor to use only HHC unionized employees to provide the food services and requires that all full-time staff remain on the HHC payroll, with all current collective bargaining rights, benefits and privileges.”

He stressed that “full-time dietary employees will not be laid off; will not have their benefits and/or salaries reduced; and will not be moved to another firm’s payroll — all such employees will remain HHC employees with all the benefits you now enjoy. What will happen is that HHC will have new management in dietary operations in each facility and you will be reporting to those managers under the same work rules, regulations, operating procedures and labor agreements you now work under.”

Chu acknowledged that the new plan would affect “all dietary management employees,” and “it is likely that some unionized part-time and/or hourly employees will be affected by this change.” He added that the corporation is committed to working with union representatives to try to find placements elsewhere within HHC for those employees. The changes to the cook-chill plant, he said, would be “phased in over nine months” beginning late this year.

Local 237 President Carl Haynes praised the HHC president for “moving swiftly” to calm employee anxieties. “We’ve been down this road many times before. During the Giuliani administration, HHC sought to privatize several hospitals, and the hospital police force, but faced stiff opposition. The corporation successfully privatized its laundry, and now they want to lease its kitchen to a private company. Dr. Chu deserves credit for laying out his plans. He obviously values his workers and understands why they would be anxious.”

Local 237 Citywide Director and Secretary-Treasurer Gregory Floyd also commended Chu, stating: “HHC has been making an effort to keep the unions informed since the beginning. We’ve been attending meetings with HHC staff to ensure that our members’ interests and jobs are protected every step of the way.”

Separately, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced, on Jan. 5, that President Chu is resigning, effective Feb. 15, to become an executive with the health-care company Kaiser-Permanente, according to an Associated Press report.