Unifor's National president is calling for COVID-19 pandemic pay to be reinstated for frontline grocery store workers.
Jerry Dias is making the call after multiple reports released Tuesday detailing near record levels of compensation and bonuses paid out to the CEO's of the major grocery store chains in Canada.
One report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found Michael Medline, CEO of Sobeys parent company Empire Company Ltd., received over $13-million in total compensation in 2020, while Loblaw Executive Chairman Galen G. Weston received over $9-million in total compensation.
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline essential grocery workers were given an increase of $2 an hour in pandemic pay by the major grocery store chains including Metro, Loblaw and Sobeys. However, those increases were ended by June 2020.
Dias says he's appalled.
"These are a group of executives that frankly have no shame, will gladly slash the wages for the front line workers that put their lives at risk everyday, yet reward themselves so handsomely. There is no shame in the corporate offices of Sobeys, Loblaw and Metro stores," he says.
Dias says we're dealing with a COVID-19 variant that is far more contagious than anything we've dealt with in this past.
"It's not like the company can't afford it. As a matter of fact, paying their employees the extra $2 an hour will have a very little impact on their bottom line," he says. "This is about doing the right thing, but I have to admit, the thinnest book in the world is the book of corporate ethics and that's what's lacking here today."
Dias says he's concerned about the frontline workers dealing with the Omicron variant.
"The fact that they're going to work each and every day, really for us, to make sure we can feed our families and have zero respect from their bosses who are doing so well, I think there's something dramatically wrong with this system," he adds.
The report, titled "Another Year in Paradise," from the CCPA says Canada's 100 highest-paid CEOs earned an average of $10.9 million in 2020, $95,000 more than what they were paid in 2019, and 191 times more than what the average worker makes.
With files from The Canadian Press