A story Saturday, Nov. 23, by NEWS Washington Bureau Chief John Day about the privatization of government agencies contained a number of unproven allegations about the Servicemaster Co., an Illinois firm that provides privatization services.

Day’s story reported that according to union officials, Servicemaster had been charged with tax evasion, job discrimination and payroll padding.

Although these charges were made in an AFL-CIO publication, and in some cases are attributed to legal and non-legal allegations against Servicemaster made by client institutions, none of the charges has been proven.

The NEWS therefore regrets that an effort was not made by our Washington bureau chief to contact a spokesman for Servicemaster to allow that company a chance to respond to the charges.