Loblaws: You can do better
Loblaw Companies was a leader back in March when it announced a $2-per-hour pay premium for frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chair Galen Weston was particularly vocal and effusive in his praise for the “incredible people” who work to keep Loblaws, No Frills, Shoppers Drug Marts and more open during the crisis.
Those low-wage workers deserve greater compensation given the value they produce for the company, the risks they take and the essential service they provide the community.
None of that has changed. So it’s callous to suddenly decide that those same workers no longer have that same value. Especially at a time when the company’s profits are soaring.
But that’s exactly what Loblaws did when it ended the pandemic pay premium for its workers this past Saturday.
It’s no longer a leader for good, but part of an unwelcome pack. Metro, Sobeys and Walmart have also jumped at the opportunity to end pandemic pay increases for their workers.
According to a Loblaw Companies note to its employees, stores are experiencing a “new normal,” with COVID-related safeguards in place. “With this stability and with economies reopening we have decided the time is right to transition out of our temporary pay premium,” it said. Essentially, they’re declaring the crisis over. But it’s not. Even the Ontario government’s promised $4 pandemic pay premium for front-line health-care workers — which hasn’t actually managed to turn up on their cheques yet — isn’t scheduled to expire until mid-August.
And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the federal government is looking into extending the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for those who can’t return to work because, quite clearly, the health and economic crisis is not yet over.
Canada’s biggest grocery store chains are ending pandemic pay simply because they can. They’ve done the calculations. Not the calculation to figure out how much more money they’re making and therefore can share with their workers. No, they’ve done the calculation that tells them they can reduce pay to its pre-pandemic lows and still retain the workers they need to keep the lights on, shelves stocked and cash registers operating.
It’s disappointing, to say the least. Especially given the fine words that Weston himself uttered when Loblaw brought in the pay premium: “Supermarkets and pharmacies are performing well … And the leaders in our business wanted to make sure that a significant portion of that benefit would go straight into the pockets of the incredible people on the front line.”
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. saw its first-quarter profits soar to $240 million, compared to $198 million in the same quarter last year. No doubt expenses have increased because of COVID-19 safeguards, but it’s hard to fathom how these stores are no longer benefiting financially, as Loblaw claims.
That means the “new normal” is already starting to look a lot like the old normal. What a shame that is.
As the COVID-19 pandemic laid waste to our economy it ruthless exposed the distortions in it, the deep inequalities in our communities and how badly frayed our social safety net has become. Canada can come out of this crisis on a better path forward if businesses and governments work together to build a more inclusive economy that offers full-time jobs with decent wages and benefits, along with a more comprehensive safety net.
But as the economy starts to reopen we risk forgetting the lessons of COVID-19 even faster than we learned them.
If the biggest grocery chains aren’t even willing to keep the pandemic pay premium until the crisis is truly over, what evidence is there that we’ve learned anything at all?
Loblaws and Co., surely you can do better. This is no time to reduce the pay for low-wage workers.