Dollarama workers want ‘pandemic pay’ back
Raises implemented at start of outbreak were cancelled this month
Dollarama workers in Montreal are demanding higher pay and better working conditions after the retailer ended its temporary coronavirus pay boost earlier this month. Employees at Dollarama stores received a 10 per cent wage increase at the end of March while warehouse workers saw a $3 raise, resulting in hourly pay of between $14.40 and $16.10 instead of Quebec’s minimum wage of $13.10.
Dollarama and several other retailers started their so-called pandemic pay programs as COVID -19 began to spread throughout Canada, sparking unprecedented working conditions amid a shopping frenzy that left some store shelves bare as companies scrambled to restock some products.
The company stopped the pay premiums on Aug. 2 after extending them for a month and a half beyond the initially anticipated end date.
Despite Dollarama’s efforts to ramp up health measures amid the pandemic, it is not possible to maintain physical distancing inside its Montreal warehouse, said organizers for a demonstration in Montreal on Thursday afternoon. Hundreds of employees clock in and out at the same time, and work on the same floor, they said.
The distribution centre is staffed primarily by immigrants and asylum seekers employed through temporary placement agencies, leaving already vulnerable workers in a more precarious position, they said.
Dollarama said it continues to adhere to strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols across its operations, developing them in collaboration with government agencies at the outset of the pandemic.
“The repeatedly recycled claims being made by these third parties regarding Dollarama’s working conditions and response to the pandemic are 100 per cent false and unfounded,” spokesperson Lyla Radmanovich wrote in an email.
Canada’s three major grocersalso halted their temporary pandemic pay bonuses simultaneously in mid-June.
The news sparked a backlash with unions representing some of the workers pushing back against the decision saying the pandemic was not over.
A parliamentary committee hearing last month saw executives from the three grocery chains face questions over their cancellation of the $2-per-hour wage increase, which was implemented in March.
The grocers have said they stopped the programs as the COVID-19 situation stabilized at their stores and distribution centres.