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Unifor welcomes the Hudson Bay Company’s (HBC) decision to restore commission to workers following a grievance filed by the union claiming that the move violated legally binding collective agreements. Unifor also doubles down on its call for HBC to pay its legal severance obligations to workers.
“The message that HBC is sending to workers is that if they could get away with paying them less, they would,” says Unifor National President Lana Payne. “HBC is not above the law, and we will not let them get away with shortchanging workers.”
“Now HBC must pay up and uphold its legal severance obligations to workers. It’s ridiculous that big brands like Calvin Klein, well paid managers, and multi-million-dollar national property developers with deep pockets are prioritized over seasoned, loyal workers. Employees who now face termination during uncertain economic times are stuck at the back of the line.
Unifor has called out HBC for awarding $3 million in management bonuses as workers face termination.
“HBC is shamelessly pushing labour and creditor protection laws to their limits as a way to shirk its responsibilities to the very workers who saw the company through hard times like the global recession and the pandemic,” says Unifor Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi. “It didn’t have to be this way—HBC could have started a contingency plan to ensure that workers had a safety net but instead decided to wait it out and is now using the CCAA processes to sidestep its legal severance obligations to workers.”
Impacted workers facing termination will have to wait until all employees are terminated at the conclusion of the liquidation to apply for the federal Wage Earner Protection Program (WEPP), which is meant to help workers during corporate bankruptcy and insolvency. The wage cap for this program is far below negotiated severance entitlements and is inadequate to meet workers’ needs as they face termination, reports the union.
Unifor continues to call for urgent reforms to federal insolvency laws to better protect workers, including raising the WEPP cap, expanding super-priority protections, imposing liability on directors for unpaid compensation, and creating a mechanism to ensure workers are made whole through trust-held funds or federal guarantees.
“It’s a shame that HBC is ending it’s time in Canada with such a ruthless attack on their workers during an extremely difficult time for them and their families,” says Unifor Local 40 President Dwayne Gunness, whose local filed the grievance against the company’s move to cut commissions. “Many workers are entitled to more than $35,000 in severance that HBC is blatantly refusing to pay out. Unifor will continue fighting for every penny its members at HBC are owed.”
Unifor Locals 40 and 240 represent approximately 595 HBC employees at stores in Windsor, Kitchener, and Toronto’s Sherway Gardens, as well as workers at the company’s e-commerce warehouse.
