Picket line on break time: Kitchener LTC workers fight unpaid wages

With the help of hand warmers and a carton of hot coffee, employees at Extendicare Forest Heights in Kitchener braved the cold for their fifth day on the picket line. 

They're fighting for wages that they said they haven't received, along with other breaches of their collective agreement.

"We've had multiple issues. We're stumped," said Mike Camblin, president of the UNIFOR branch that local Extendicare home employees belong to. "Days haven't been paid on time, overtime, different things."

He said that when workers receive their pay there are sometimes hours or even days missing from the ledger. "Like we don't understand why it's obviously continuing to go on."

Camblin said a large concern workers are faced with is the absence of a three per cent wage increase that was supposed to be implemented on Nov. 1, as per their collective agreement.

"A couple of weeks go by, you don't get it. Another couple of weeks go by, nothing. We're like what's going on?" he said.

Camblin said that he was eventually informed that it wouldn't be until the end of January before they could pay the workers this raise.

"We don't understand why they can't at least give them their three per cent raise right now," he said.

In an emailed statement from Extendicare, they say that a system configuration issue has resulted in the delay implementing a retroactive wage increase to a group of employees at their Forest Heights facility.

"We have notified the employees and their union about this delay and will continue to communicate with our union partners as we work to resolve the issue," the statement said.

"Any pay discrepancy for our teams is below the standard we hold ourselves to, and we unreservedly apologize to the affected staff for any inconvenience this has caused."

'Many, many payroll issues,' employee says

One long-time employee at Extendicare Forest Heights said it's because of the multitude of payroll complications that they're on the picket line. CBC is not identifying the worker out of respect for their concern that speaking out against their employer may hurt their employment.

"Many, many payroll issues pertaining to everything from in lieu of benefits, overtime paid, regular hours worked, stats paid at time and a half. There's multiple issues. The list goes on," the employee said. "I think it starts at the bottom and works its way up, I really do."

Over the course of each day the workers have been on the line, the employee said there are never more than a few people out at a time. That's because they're still working.

"We still have a policy. We still have to take care of our residents. We're not allowed to do strikes or lockouts," they said. "We're allowed to get our voices heard, but it has to be on our time off before and after work."

But they said that most workers have taken to picketing on their breaks, too.

"Morale is down for sure, but we try to keep our spirits up for our residents. We really do put on a happy face."

In some cases, residents of the long term care home have taken up a sign themselves.

"It makes us feel good," they said. "Without them we would have a job and without us they wouldn't have anybody to care for them. So we work hand in hand for the residents."