Evidence of meeting #28 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
We would work with our union and employees to determine what is the best thing they would want in terms of their employment, and the majority of our employees are not women. The majority are women, but I wouldn't say it's predominantly women. That's all, just to that point.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you.
Our next round of questions goes to MP Masse.
You have the floor for two and a half minutes.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I just want to make sure I'm clear on this.
Ms. Davis, you're saying that you increased the bonus to your employees because of how much volume they had to put on the shelves versus because of their potentially getting sick from an illness that we didn't understand, and their having to remain open, when everybody else didn't, because they were essential.
Is that correct? It's just the volume of things they had to put on the shelves?
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
It was the unprecedented times that they had to deal with within the stores, absolutely.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I don't know where you shop, but I shop at your stores and when I looked in the eyes of your employees, I could see how scared they were. Most of us went to the store by ourselves and not with our families, as we normally would, because we were encouraged not to do that. We went into the store when we were supposed to, with other people.
It wasn't a normal process or time. All you have to do is look in the eyes of your employees, whether they're wiping carts when you're walking in the parking lot or when you are going up and down the aisles. They have had to deal with volumes of people in all kinds of situations, and with people not even wearing masks.
What do you say to the families of two of your workers who tested positive just last week in Windsor? What do you say to them about the fact that they actually got their pay cut from what it was earlier in the pandemic? Wasn't it really about whether they were exposed more? Wasn't it that they had more challenges? Was it just about the pieces of product they had to put in an aisle? Was that all it was about?
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
The pay was about an appreciation for the additional work they were doing during their days.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Given this area, where most of our cases have been from migrant workers, your store's one of the few places where it actually has cases where workers have tested positive. What do you think? Is that unique, or is it because the volume of people going into your store put your workers at risk even more because there's actually more volume for exposure? What do you think about that?
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Quite frankly, if you're in an office by yourself, working by yourself, do you think your risk is the same as your workers who have to handle groceries and products with hundreds of people going by them every single day, a few feet away, and sometimes interacting with them on different things? Do you think those things are equal?
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
I don't think they're equal. That's why we spent tens of millions of dollars in order to make our stores safer, in order to provide an essential service to Canadians.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Again, you didn't contact the health department specifically on that, did you?
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
It was as given by the governments and the health—
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
We would have used information from the health—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Unfortunately, that's all your time, MP Masse.
The next round of questions goes to MP Patzer. You have the floor for five minutes.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'll start with Mr. Medline. I just have a simple question for you. The extra pay, how much per hour was it per employee?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Empire Company Limited
We had a bit of a different program from everyone else. I just want to clarify that. We didn't all do the same thing. We did pay two dollars an hour to everyone in our stores and in our distribution centres.
What we did a little differently, I think—and I'm not that clear on the others, so they might want to talk about their own programs—was that we knew that certain part-time workers might only come in for a few hours. We had to make good by them, so we guaranteed everyone $50 a week, no matter how many hours they worked. That was something we thought about because our teammates have to travel to get to work.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Okay, thank you. I have limited time but I appreciate that.
Ms. Davis, for you guys, was it two dollars an hour as well?
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
Yes, ours was more straightforward in the sense that it was two dollars per hour for all store colleagues, all DC colleagues, all front-line workers in our stores and across—
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Okay. Thank you.
Then Mr. La Flèche, for you guys, was it two dollars an hour as well?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Metro inc.
Yes, across the board, corporate stores, distribution centres, it was two dollars an hour, regardless of the wage.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Okay, so for any of you, prior to or after you made the decision to increase by two dollars an hour, was there an email or a phone call saying, “Hey, this is what we did. Are you doing the same thing?” Was there any of that kind of consultation amongst each other with the two-dollar increase, not just the decrease?
Mr. La Flèche, do you want to go first?
