Union disputes N.S. government over fate of workers at hotel turned provincial shelter
CTV
Nova Scotia's government says a Dartmouth hotel it has leased as a homeless shelter will also house people who are discharged from hospitals but still require a bed and care.
The representative working with 80 unionized employees at the Dartmouth hotel turning into a provincial shelter and health clinic has disputed the Nova Scotia government’s assertion that all the current staff have been offered alternate employment.
In an interview with CTV News Friday, Lionel MacEachern of United Food & Commercial Workers Canada said workers he heard from are “very upset.”
“The only ones that got offered work are the ones that are non-union, which would be under the management role,” he said. “I guess my talk with the Premier’s Office fell on deaf ears.”
He said the workers’ contract with the company that operates the hotel, Manga Hotels in Toronto, contains stipulations that mean workers will not get severance after being laid off for more than 10 months.
The province’s contract with Manga will allow them to use 190 rooms at the hotel for shelter diversion and on-site health clinic services, running from May 1 to March 24, 2024.
Unless a laid-off worker is brought back within the 10-month period, MacEachern says, the employee then loses seniority and is essentially terminated from the contract.
In a video news conference Friday, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Community Services Karla MacFarlane insisted all the employees were being taken care of.
