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“Precarious” is a fancy word to describe conditions facing low-income workers these days. “Fired” was the translation for Shauntel Snowden one day last month.
“I went into the office having a job and I walked out of the office with no job. Not even five minutes.”
Shauntel Snowden, 24, is at home at her kitchen table, holding back the tears. She says she was fired from Tim Hortons on May 29, midway through her shift.
The reason? She’s taken too many sick days since she started Nov. 13 at the Walkley and Conroy roads location — about 12 days in a little over six months.
As the main wage-earner in the household, she’s now left with two children under the age of four to support and rent of $1,375 a month on a south-end townhouse.
Snowden says there is an explanation for her absences from work, where she earned the minimum wage of $14 an hour. Her own premature birth was a difficult one and she was left with lifelong asthma and lungs that are less than robust. “For normal people, it’s a cold. For me, it’s pneumonia or bronchitis.”
About half of the sick leave, she says, was due to an attack on her breathing system this winter that left her in hospital for two days on supplemental oxygen. In total, she had to be away from work for six or seven days. She said the other days were due to coughing and breathing troubles. In nearly every case, she says, she provided a doctor’s note.
Things appeared to reach a turning point after she called in sick on May 27 with a stomach bug, she explained.
She worked a regular shift the following Monday but was told management wanted to speak to her the next day. Snowden said a manager told her they couldn’t understand her frequent sick days and inquired whether there was a health condition, like cancer, they should know about. She said she tried to explain her pulmonary problems but was told she was being “let go.”
She was distraught.
“I was expecting them to be decent and understand that some people actually do have problems with being ill. Some people do have legitimate reasons.”
The Walkley outlet referred questions to its corporate offices, which declined to discuss the specifics of a personnel matter. However, a written response said franchise agreements require owners to comply with relevant labour laws.
“We take active steps to support our Owners in their efforts to ensure that all Team Members across the country have a fair and rewarding work experience in every Tim Hortons Restaurant. This includes providing Owners with third-party tools and resources they can use to better understand and assess their workplace obligations, including expert HR advice, employment policy templates and other employment-related resources.”
As for whether there is a consistent sick-leave policy across the company, it responded: “To clarify, there is no one policy for this matter across the Tim Hortons system as almost all of our Restaurants are independently owned and operated by individual Restaurant Owners who are solely responsible for setting all employment policies, including any policies related to sick leave.”
Ontario’s Employment Standards Act says workers are entitled to 10 sick days in any calendar year but only the first two must be paid. But it is not a simple matter that an employee can be fired when the 10 days are exceeded, says one Ottawa lawyer.
Paul Champ says the Ontario Human Rights Code also provides protection to workers, especially if they have a disability.
“The Human Rights Code would also apply and would require an employer to provide sufficient leave to the employee as may be medically required, unless to do so constitutes undue hardship to the employer,” he wrote in reply to a question.
“Under current case law, an employee is usually able to be off on medical leave for two years before the employer can consider discharge.”
Though a Canadian staple, Tim Hortons has endured its share of labour and image troubles this year, when the higher minimum wage went into effect. A small number of outlets were the subject of sidewalk protests when staff were told they would lose paid breaks and other perks because of the higher wage costs.
Even Premier Kathleen Wynne got involved: double-double was suddenly double trouble.
Nor did it end with a little sign waving in southern Ontario. A statement from Tim Hortons head office blamed a rogue group of franchisees for going after workers, labelling their conduct “reckless.” Company staff, the statement continued, “should never be used to further an agenda or be treated as just an ‘expense.”‘
Snowden said she enjoyed her job, especially the fast pace, and thought she had a future with the company. While there were many part-time staff, she enjoyed full-time work and believes she had the confidence of her supervisors.
She said she was never asked if she had any medical issues when she started, nor was she told whether she is entitled to severance pay. Further, does a big company like Tim’s not have some duty to accommodate a worker’s needs?
“When you have a medical condition and you’re discriminated against and lose your job because of that, that’s not right. I have two kids to support,” she pleaded. “We can’t predict when we’re going to be sick.
“Now I have nothing.”
Sean McKenny is president of the Ottawa & District Labour Council. He said he regularly gets calls from minimum wage workers who feel frustrated with an employer over issues like sick leave, hours of work and benefits. And it can be a perilous thing to complain too loudly to an employer, lest there be retaliation of some kind, he added. Consider, too, that the workforce is often transient.
“It can be a real mess.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com.
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
“I went into the office having a job and I walked out of the office with no job. Not even five minutes.”
Shauntel Snowden, 24, is at home at her kitchen table, holding back the tears. She says she was fired from Tim Hortons on May 29, midway through her shift.
The reason? She’s taken too many sick days since she started Nov. 13 at the Walkley and Conroy roads location — about 12 days in a little over six months.
As the main wage-earner in the household, she’s now left with two children under the age of four to support and rent of $1,375 a month on a south-end townhouse.
Snowden says there is an explanation for her absences from work, where she earned the minimum wage of $14 an hour. Her own premature birth was a difficult one and she was left with lifelong asthma and lungs that are less than robust. “For normal people, it’s a cold. For me, it’s pneumonia or bronchitis.”
About half of the sick leave, she says, was due to an attack on her breathing system this winter that left her in hospital for two days on supplemental oxygen. In total, she had to be away from work for six or seven days. She said the other days were due to coughing and breathing troubles. In nearly every case, she says, she provided a doctor’s note.
Things appeared to reach a turning point after she called in sick on May 27 with a stomach bug, she explained.
She worked a regular shift the following Monday but was told management wanted to speak to her the next day. Snowden said a manager told her they couldn’t understand her frequent sick days and inquired whether there was a health condition, like cancer, they should know about. She said she tried to explain her pulmonary problems but was told she was being “let go.”
She was distraught.
“I was expecting them to be decent and understand that some people actually do have problems with being ill. Some people do have legitimate reasons.”
The Walkley outlet referred questions to its corporate offices, which declined to discuss the specifics of a personnel matter. However, a written response said franchise agreements require owners to comply with relevant labour laws.
“We take active steps to support our Owners in their efforts to ensure that all Team Members across the country have a fair and rewarding work experience in every Tim Hortons Restaurant. This includes providing Owners with third-party tools and resources they can use to better understand and assess their workplace obligations, including expert HR advice, employment policy templates and other employment-related resources.”
As for whether there is a consistent sick-leave policy across the company, it responded: “To clarify, there is no one policy for this matter across the Tim Hortons system as almost all of our Restaurants are independently owned and operated by individual Restaurant Owners who are solely responsible for setting all employment policies, including any policies related to sick leave.”
Ontario’s Employment Standards Act says workers are entitled to 10 sick days in any calendar year but only the first two must be paid. But it is not a simple matter that an employee can be fired when the 10 days are exceeded, says one Ottawa lawyer.
Paul Champ says the Ontario Human Rights Code also provides protection to workers, especially if they have a disability.
“The Human Rights Code would also apply and would require an employer to provide sufficient leave to the employee as may be medically required, unless to do so constitutes undue hardship to the employer,” he wrote in reply to a question.
“Under current case law, an employee is usually able to be off on medical leave for two years before the employer can consider discharge.”
Though a Canadian staple, Tim Hortons has endured its share of labour and image troubles this year, when the higher minimum wage went into effect. A small number of outlets were the subject of sidewalk protests when staff were told they would lose paid breaks and other perks because of the higher wage costs.
Even Premier Kathleen Wynne got involved: double-double was suddenly double trouble.
Nor did it end with a little sign waving in southern Ontario. A statement from Tim Hortons head office blamed a rogue group of franchisees for going after workers, labelling their conduct “reckless.” Company staff, the statement continued, “should never be used to further an agenda or be treated as just an ‘expense.”‘
Snowden said she enjoyed her job, especially the fast pace, and thought she had a future with the company. While there were many part-time staff, she enjoyed full-time work and believes she had the confidence of her supervisors.
She said she was never asked if she had any medical issues when she started, nor was she told whether she is entitled to severance pay. Further, does a big company like Tim’s not have some duty to accommodate a worker’s needs?
“When you have a medical condition and you’re discriminated against and lose your job because of that, that’s not right. I have two kids to support,” she pleaded. “We can’t predict when we’re going to be sick.
“Now I have nothing.”
Sean McKenny is president of the Ottawa & District Labour Council. He said he regularly gets calls from minimum wage workers who feel frustrated with an employer over issues like sick leave, hours of work and benefits. And it can be a perilous thing to complain too loudly to an employer, lest there be retaliation of some kind, he added. Consider, too, that the workforce is often transient.
“It can be a real mess.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com.
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
