Personnel Matter

The Personnel Office is investigating a complaint about the work of Gertraude Schroder, a secretary in the Physics Department and one of the founders of the Harvard Employees Organizing Committee.

William N. Mullins, manager of Employee Relations, has been holding hearings on the complaint; Schroder, meanwhile, is in the second week of a paid suspension.

Mullins, Schroder, and William M. Preston, lecturer of Physics, who filed the complaint about Schroder, would not comment yesterday on the substance of the complaint, although Preston did say it "has something to do with her performance at work."

There does seem to be some disagreement, however, over whether the complaint has anything to do with Schroder's union organizing activities. Mullins and Preston insist it does not, and Preston said his complaint "predates her affiliation with the union," which began last spring.

On the other hand, Schroder has a lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, who is being paid by District 65 of the Distributive Workers of America, a New York clerical and technical workers' union that the HEOC is informally affiliated with.

Schroder has been the HEOC's most frequent spokesman this fall, and has sharply criticized Harvard's handling of its clerical workers. The HEOC is trying to unionize the 3000 clerical workers who work for Harvard in Cambridge.

No other HEOC member--and its leadership is a matter of public record, often listed on leaflets--has been subject to any disciplinary action.