New Tax Law Force:: HSA To Reduce Employee Hours

The seven newly elected student direction of Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) face a financial crench which has forced the company to reduce the hours of some employees.

"This is a pretty tough year for us," said Jennifer A Rom '85, one of the new directors and a bookkeeping assistant in HSA's business office. "We're trying to think of new ways to increase profit, but we're going to be struggling a bit," she added.

A main source of HSA's financial problems is new tax legislation requiring non-profit organizations to pay social security taxes. Hope Spruance, HSA's general manager, estimated the law's cost to the organization at over $30,000. Managers attributed HSA's other financial problems to the annual transition of general managers and the condition of the economy

Although Spruance said that cutting employee is a last resort, several students said their shifts already been decreased.

There cutbacks are occurring in HSA agencies that hire office help, rather than those such as catering, which make profits proportional to the number of students they hire, according to Wendy R. McCulley '86 another of the new directors.

Bruce T. Wilson '85, a former HSA employee, cited the reduction of hours as one of his reasons for leaving. "I thought the situation was impossible; there weren't enough people to make the job work," said wilson.

He added that "cutting office personnel could be a fatal mistake. the less people you have answering phones, looking for jobs, and people to fill them, the less money you generate,"

Wilson suggested as an alternative that "it might be wiser for the managers to take a cut in hours and salary."

HSA has formed a committee to find other ways of increasing efficiency and saving money, according to Louis J. Morsnerger '85, a new director and manager of direct sales.

However, director Narri R Cooper 85, manager of the agency which runs the popular bartending course, said, "Inmy agency staff office hours are the only place to cut back"