Yes, that's right.
The Globe and Mail has done a series of stories about the problems with the wage subsidy program. I think the idea of the wage subsidy makes a whole lot of sense. We don't have a problem with employers getting access to that program. The problem is that it was described as a way to keep workers attached to their jobs. We don't see that happening. We've seen employers use it selectively. Maybe they use it to cover management or maybe they just cover a skeleton crew. In other countries, we've seen that they've used it to make sure the workers stay attached and that money is flowing through to workers who need that. It's really critical to keep that connection.
We understand it's going to be a while for business to come back in the hotel sector. Now another subsidy is coming and we are concerned that there are going to be no restrictions or controls on who is able to qualify for that. There are some limited restrictions, but in terms of whether they are going to be able to access that subsidy after they've eliminated their staff and replaced them with less, will they get a hiring subsidy for the replacements? That's a problem.
Regardless of whether they're in the union or not, we've seen this affect hospitality workers across the board. Non-union workers started losing their jobs last year. Elisa referred to this. In union contracts, you may have 12 months of recall in your contract, but we don't bargain contracts with a pandemic in mind. We've asked all of our employers to consider extending the amount of time workers can come back to their jobs to get through the pandemic.
We know the work is coming back. We want to make sure that those workers who've invested 10, 20, 30 or 40-plus years of their lives in these hotels will have the first shot at getting their jobs back. We think that's fair. It doesn't cost the government a dime. It's the decent thing for employers to do. Unfortunately, we're seeing a lot of employers use the pandemic as an opportunity to get rid of long-term staff and drastically roll back the economic gains they've made over years. That shouldn't be happening. We don't want to see government programs used to benefit them and not help workers.