Kensington, P.E.I. man loses employment after asking for livable wage

KENSINGTON, P.E.I. — A Kensington man discovered himself unemployed solely days after asking administration at his job for a elevate to a livable wage.

Joseph Moniz had been working as a pharmacy assistant at an Island pharmacy for 9 months earlier than he was fired with out trigger on Could 6. Solely days earlier than, on Could 3, Moniz had emailed a poem he wrote to his boss and the regional supervisor of the pharmacy.

Within the poem, Moniz requested for a elevate for him and all of his colleagues to a livable wage of $19.30 an hour – the identical charge the Canadian Centre for Coverage Alternate options listed as a livable wage in Charlottetown in 2020.

Three days later, Moniz stated he was given a letter stating he was being let go from his job.

“They’d not give me any cause,” he stated. “It is apparent that it is due to this (e mail). I spoke to them (Could 6), they usually did not wish to give me a cause. They stated it is with out trigger, there isn’t any cause, it is with out trigger. That is all they’d inform me.”

Moniz’s poem wasn’t meant to be aggressive or crucial of the administration however was as an alternative a easy request, he stated. Getting fired had by no means crossed his thoughts.

“This isn’t the result I needed, I needed to maintain my job,” he stated. “I like being employed and having one thing to do, particularly in a job which is for the neighborhood.”

Pay had been a sensitive topic since beginning the job, stated Moniz. He had knowledgeable the corporate he wasn’t proud of the $14 an hour charge when he was employed and had beforehand requested administration about methods to succeed and transfer up the ladder with the corporate, solely to obtain no reply.

After being instructed repeatedly that particular person conferences could be held between workers and administration to debate pay, Moniz stated he felt it was time to sort out the difficulty head-on.

“I obtained uninterested in ready, so I despatched them the e-mail,” he stated. “I simply wrote it. It felt good and I am happy with it. I am not happy with what they did, although. I do not understand how they might try this.”

Moniz stated he felt the corporate was underpaying its employees in comparison with different pharmacies.

“Nobody actually posts how a lot they pay, however while you have a look at the common of what individuals (at different firms) are paid, it appears that evidently they’re paid much more than $14.50 an hour,” he stated.

“I think about the common to be round $18 an hour.”

In line with Certainly.com, an internet job financial institution, the common pay for pharmacy assistants in Canada is round $18.64 an hour as of Could 8.

Lack of energy

Getting a dwelling wage near the advisable $19.30 an hour could be troublesome in P.E.I., as many roles nonetheless provide pay that’s on par or simply barely above minimal wage, stated anti-poverty advocate Mary Boyd.

“(Due to this), staff are those who’re trapped, they usually don’t appear to have the ability at this level to combat for the wage that will deliver them over the poverty line,” she stated.

That lack of energy may very well be attributed to an absence of unionization in Prince Edward Island, in addition to an financial system pushed by a tourism trade that doesn’t permit seasonal staff to interrupt the cycle of short-term, low-paying positions, stated Boyd.

“There was no chance for any working group to have the ability to alter this example. The one chance is to maintain working, and it’s not that totally different all around the Atlantic area, after all,” she stated.

“The fallout and the results of that’s you’ve an enormous variety of staff who’re working poor. The one reply to all of that is respectable pay and respectable working situations. That’s the reply, and it’s not occurring quick sufficient.”

“They may have simply stated no, they did not have to fireplace me.” – Joseph Moniz

Boyd stated the present working setting in many roles makes it exhausting for workers to method the subject of livable wages with their bosses.

Altering that setting would require a scientific change in how we have a look at employment and our financial system, she stated, however that change would have to be made by these with energy.

“The goal ought to all the time be a dwelling wage, and if it is not, then the exhausting questions have to be requested to the policymakers as a result of that’s the place the faults are,” stated Boyd.

Boyd stated she wasn’t shocked to listen to an worker had been let go after asking for a livable wage.

As for Moniz, regardless of not getting a livable wage, he stated he would take his place on the pharmacy again if it have been provided to him. Nevertheless, he stated the corporate knowledgeable him it’s “moving into a distinct route.”

Whereas Moniz has a part-time job to fall again on, he had hoped the pharmacy job would have been extra of a long-term place, he stated.

“I did benefit from the pharmacy job, and my want was to make a profession out of it,” he stated. “I imply, they might have simply stated no, they did not have to fireplace me.”  

Cody McEachern is a enterprise reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island. @CodyInHiFi