UK chooses major company to manage dining, maintenance, other staff after Aramark split

The largest food and service facilities company in the United States will soon be contracted to manage several areas of the University of Kentucky, according to a UK news release Thursday afternoon.

The university announced Thursday it chose Compass Group as its enterprise services partner, which will oversee dining, maintenance, grounds, custodial, in-patient sitters and in-patient transport workers.

“The enterprise services partnership is designed to improve coordination and long‑term planning across UK, UK HealthCare, UK King’s Daughters and UK St. Claire, while preserving university oversight and employee commitments,” the news release said.

“This partnership represents the next phase of how we support our growing, more complex university — and how we do so thoughtfully with our people and our purpose at the center of what we do,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “Just as we have reimagined housing, research and health care to meet the needs of today and tomorrow, this partnership is about building strong, coordinated services that can meet and sustain the demand of excellence across the entire UK enterprise.”

Current employees will not see a difference in pay or benefits, according to the university. But it’s unclear what that package will entail for new workers who aren’t currently employed by UK.

“All current UK employees will continue to have a job with the university and will keep their pay and benefits — at UK, UK HealthCare, UK King’s Daughters and UK St. Claire,” the university said. “Compass Group will also provide access to expanded training, development, apprenticeships and career opportunities across its broader network.”

Compass Group already employs over 1,400 workers in UK HealthCare.

The university chose Compass Group out of six companies that responded to a request for proposals, according to Gina Dugas, senior vice president for finance and administration at UK.

Dugas said a rigorous evaluation process led to this decision and included perspectives from 40 members of UK’s hospitals and university staff.

“I think the evaluation process that we went through really reflects a very broad and very balanced focus on leadership input, so there was really nothing done in a vacuum,” Dugas told the Herald-Leader two days before the announcement.

The university has been criticized for a lack of campus input on these changes in recent weeks by faculty, staff and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

As a result of this partnership, over 900 dining workers will be laid off on June 30, before the new company takes over on July 1. UK ended a contract early with Aramark, which employed the food workers and sent a WARN notice of termination to them on April 29. But they will be rehired by Compass Group, according to Jay Blanton, a spokesperson for UK.

UK said in a news release Thursday that employees affected by the transition “will be offered the opportunity to continue in their work with comparable compensation and benefits.”

The university is finalizing a formal contract with Compass Group, which may outline changes in each department impacted.

“Patient feeding models will look different than higher ed dining models ...,” Dugas said, as an example. “We have some very, very intense financial analyses that are happening in each service area.”

Dugas said the new partner “is very, very focused on building skill, trade workforces and sort of growing their own because candidly, that’s an ongoing issue for us... to be able to maintain skilled trades and be able to compete with the external market.”

UK signed a letter of intent to partner with Compass Group but has not yet finalized a contract, according to the university’s website.