Remember us after COVID-19, grocery store worker says
B.C. woman making minimum wage ‘terrified’ of getting mother sick
DELTA, B.C.—Worrying about being infected with COVID-19 at the grocery store where she works has become part of the job for Kelly Ferguson, who lives with her 90-year-old mother.
“I’m terrified of getting my mom sick,” said Ferguson, adding that her mother’s caregiver stopped coming by five weeks ago, so she and her sister ensure one of them is home from work to fill that role.
Ferguson began working at FreshCo last December when Safeway rebranded the store as part of a restructuring by Nova Scotia-based Empire Co. Ltd.
Grocery store employees are considered essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ferguson said she earns minimum wage of $13.85 an hour, with a recent temporary top-up of $2 per hour after the first 20 hours.
Sobeys, which operates FreshCo and other stores including IGA and Thrifty Foods, is among employers that are temporarily offering so-called hero pay.
“I don’t feel like a hero,” Ferguson said. “I’m just trying to pay my bills.”
She said the strain of constantly keeping her physical distance from customers weighs heavily on her, and other workers deemed essential may face an accumulation of mental health stress after the pandemic.
While most customers have been courteous, some have allowed their frustrations over the shortage of items like flour and paper towels to spill over, including one person who recently threw a jug of milk at a cashier, Ferguson said. “They’re impatient and they’re pissed off because they can’t get what they want,” she said.
Ferguson said employers that are offering extra pay should remember grocery store workers’ ongoing contributions after the pandemic by improving their wages.
Sobeys spokesperson Jacquelin Weatherbee said 75 cases of COVID-19 were identified between April 1 and 20 in its stores across the country, 45 of them in Quebec alone.
She said employees at corporately owned stores, just over half the 1,500 stores the company operates, as well as those at 31 distribution centres, are receiving an extra $50 per week, regardless of the number of hours they work, and a $2 an hour top-up after 20 hours.