In Defence of the Rights and
Dignity of Hospitality Workers
BC Hospitality Workers Step Up Their
Fight for Job Security
- Brian Sproule -
Hotel workers protest outside BC legislature, July 7, 2020 demanding
the government protect their job security.
At least one BC hotel is using conditions created
by the
pandemic as an excuse to terminate the jobs of workers without
severance pay. The owners of the Four Points by Sheraton Vancouver
Airport Hotel are claiming that the pandemic means they do not have to
provide severance pay to terminated employees and have notified 20 to
30 workers that they were terminated and will not receive severance.
The BC Employment
Standards Act
requires that an employer pay severance to workers who are laid off at
the end of a certain period when the layoff is deemed to have become a
termination, and that period, at the request of employers'
organizations, has been extended under
the emergency powers declared to deal with the pandemic. If the actions
of the hotel are allowed to stand, hundreds of thousands of working
people laid off during the pandemic, who have not yet returned to work,
would be in danger of being denied severance pay if their layoffs
become terminations.
 Four
Points by Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel is independently owned but
the Sheraton name and some services are franchised from Marriott
International Inc. whose net worth is nearly $41 billion Canadian. The
hotel's general manager, Vijaay Kanna, wrote to employees in May
claiming that the drop in business during the pandemic had
made terminations necessary. Kanna wrote "While the government wage
subsidy allowed us to continue to provide you some work in hopes of the
situation turning around there is no longer a reasonable prospect of us
continuing to need your services."
The workers are not represented by a union. The
terminated workers have to file individual complaints with the
provincial Labour Standards Branch. Shannon Leung, a front desk
employee for the last seven years who is one of the fired workers, says
she is concerned that older workers will have an especially hard time
finding new jobs. "I
think everyone should have a choice whether they get to stay or not. I
feel like they're getting rid of us just because they can." Leung added
that the hotel pays slightly better than the minimum wage but she fears
the hotel may want to hire new workers at lower pay.
UNITE HERE Local 40 which represents thousands of
unionized hotel, food service and airport industry workers throughout
B.C. is speaking out not only on behalf of its own members, nearly all
of whom have been laid off, but also on behalf of workers who do not
have defence organizations.
On June 25, the Horgan government announced an
extension
of the layoff period before employers would have to pay severance. From
the 13 weeks in the legislation, the period is now extended to 24
weeks.
This provision expires August 30. On the same day, Local 40 held a
rally
and press conference outside the Rosewood Hotel Georgia
demanding "Where is Our Right to Return to Work?" President Zailda Chen
stated "We are incredibly disappointed by the Government's decision
today to extend temporary layoffs and delay severance to help the
business community without any protection for workers. The government
had to put 50,000 hotel workers out of work, but without any
legal rights to get their jobs back. Hotel workers are already being
permanently terminated as a result of this pandemic. A wave of
terminations may come in September. This decision falls far short of
what laid-off workers need to stay connected to their jobs. The B.C.
government needs to act and protect workers-not just businesses."
BC Federation of Labour President Laird Cronk
said, in a
news release issued June 25, "If employers are getting more time to get
their business back on its feet, it's only fair that workers have the
right to return to their jobs when that period ends.... Employers
argued
an extension would help them bring their employees back -- so let's
make sure
they do."
 Hospitality
workers are demanding that the government take action to protect their
jobs, no matter how long the layoffs last, whether they have a union or
not, something that can be done under the emergency powers.
Workers who
are members of UNITE HERE Local 40 negotiated the right to return to
their jobs following a layoff of up to six months in the contract that
ended their strike in the fall of 2019. They are concerned that as soon
as that six month period
expires the employer will terminate all the workers so they can hire
new workers at lower wages, eliminate the negotiated contract and the
union as well.
James Milling who worked as a doorman at the Hotel
Georgia for nine years stated "Our contribution to BC's hotel industry
is significant. I hope the Province does not let workers with years of
experience go by the wayside. The provincial Government should make
sure that hotel workers who have built this industry are guaranteed to
get our
jobs back as the industry recovers."
At the onset of the pandemic the financial
oligarchy
through its political representatives claimed over and over that "We
are all in this together." However it is clear that the rich are only
interested in resolving the crisis in a manner that favours them while
leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. Hospitality workers and
their allies are
stepping up the fight for recognition of their right to job security.
This article was published in
Number 48 - July 9, 2020
Article Link:
In Defence of the Rights and
Dignity of Hospitality Workers: BC Hospitality Workers Step Up Their Fight for Job Security - Brian Sproule
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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