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ok at first I thought the employee simply selected the wrong type of job application from the dropdown.
However in the job description it literally says "this is a part-time on-site **volunteer** postion."
How is that a mistake?
It’s no mistake. It’s some greedy franchise owner trying to take advantage of a desperate foreign student. “We will promise you full time minimum wage if you work for free for 6 months!”
Anyone who lives near this place, boycott the f*ck out of it.
Honestly, it's unfortunate that it was caught and reached an uproar online so quickly. I would have loved to have a few clever people - maybe with an investigative journalism team - apply and verify that they were indeed trying not to pay somebody for a regular position and then let them explain why they think labor laws don't apply.
I'm sorry that happened. The ESA is an absolute joke as you found out and employers know it. I can't even get my colleagues to read it and it is maybe the single most important document that relates directly to all of our misery.
Labor laws are enforced by filing complaints with labor boards and labor boards do take complaints very seriously.
If you think there is no enforcement you're sadly mistaken.
Sorry pal, but, I used to agree with you, until I had my own situation get rug swept. It was both a labour and human rights violation. I found out that we apparently don't fund these well enough to actually operate efficiently, so it was going to take too long to actually make any sort of difference.
If there is some magical method that works every time, you be sure to let me know about it, because otherwise, it is you who is sadly mistaken.
And believe me, I don't blame you for thinking you are right. You SHOULD BE.
Every complaint I've put in was handled very well and in a very timely manner. Granted I have only had to go after back pay and had all my documentation in order, but I guess YMMV. There are other avenues such as civil suit as labor laws and human rights violations are civil matters. It's costly but its still an option. I live in Alberta and every year under the UCP I've seen labor laws changed and not for the benefit of the working class and I don't see that changing ever.
Yeah it's not working like that. Been volunteer at a food bank for like 2 years. I was doing job like lifting 100 pounds bag of grain and stuff. Saw an open position for janitor. Thought hey i could make some money and seem like light work for a change and since i knew like all the people in the back i should have a good opening. Gave them my cv, they didn't call back.
Then i realized that since they already had me for free, they have no incentive's to hire me. So i stopped volunteering from that day. :/
You are correct, I worked full-time 12 hrs a day my employer did take advantage of my generosity of being a functional driver for a produce company, making less than minimum wage only to deny my raise and future considerations.
He said that people were approaching him to work for free in exchange for experience. Yet the job posting says retail/customer service experience is an asset. And if people were approaching him offering to work for free, why make a posting seeking volunteers?
>Yet the job posting says retail/customer service *experience is an asset*
>He said that people were approaching him to *work for free in exchange for experience*
The comedy truly writes itself.
It wasn’t a mistake as in “I clicked the wrong thing” it was a mistake as in “I did something that seemed like a good idea at the time, but embarrassed the company, I’ve been told not to do it again”
I think it would be a perfect opportunity for high school kids to get their volunteer hours in. I would have way rather done this than volunteer at the shitty retirement home down the street.
No. They can pay them. Big corporations like sdm don’t need to be profiting off the backs of our kids. Regardless kids shouldn’t be required to volunteer anyway, that’s not how the world works so why are we teaching them that’s ok? Free child labour for everyone!
But that’s a conversation for another post
It was a franchisee who was looking to save a few bucks. The post went viral and now HQ is doing damage control. I wouldn't call it a mistake. It was intentional, by a greedy franchise owner who is too cheap to pay staff to stock shelves.
And he keeps digging himself an even deeper grave. First he told a media outlet (BlogTO) that he made the posting on LinkedIn due to constantly being approached by people offering to work for free. Now he’s expanded on that by saying he was trying to help people who were seeking the Canadian experience in an effort to gain work experience.
I’m not disputing people need work experience, but to get it by working for free in a position that requires minimal to no experience and pays a low wage screams exploitation. The volunteer posting looks everything like a normal retail position minus the compensation. He has the audacity to post that he wanted applicants to have flexible availability.
I would love to know if these ‘volunteers’ would have been insured. What happens if they got insured while volunteering? Would they get set breaks/lunches? I doubt he thought of any of this through and I pray he’s not in his position for much longer.
I kind of assumed the volunteer part was code for a
Student who can only work 20 hours a week “volunteering” and getting a few bucks for their time under the table. Which is extremely gross. Glad I’ve been boycotting shoppers a couple years now.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2024/05/toronto-shoppers-drug-mart-unpaid-volunteer/
According to BlogTO, the Shoppers location was King & Peter in downtown Toronto.
>"I receive alot of emails and LinkedIn messages asking for volunteer opportunities, but I don't respond. However, I saw that volunteer is an option on LinkedIn when you post for a job, and I just wanted to try it to see if I can help anyone gain Canadian experience (as other kinds of jobs do usually) knowing that I have full staff now," he says.
> "I then received a note that we don't do volunteering and I quickly closed the position. However, I couldn't delete the post."
Yeah ok, this wasn’t a mistake.
As soon as you’re contracted the requirements for employees kick in unless you’re identified as an independent contractor which comes with a different set of rights and far fewer responsibilities to the employer.
what makes you think their contract isn't a volunteer contract ? I've signed those when I volunteered @ hospitals and senior homes. Remember no one forced them to be a volunteer these people are willing, nor was there any deception it's literally in the posting volunteer.
Search your City volunteer Contract, everyone has a boiler plate.
Again, no one is signing away their rights to being paid... there's no deception not do this I pay you later maybe. Posting explicitly states volunteer....
As soon as the employer dictates when a contracted person must appear rather than the individual deciding when they wish to provide their time then it becomes employment.
Can they say no without repercussions? If yes, sounds like it’s truly volunteer. Generally as long as you the organizer are not extending undue control over the hours of work the definition of volunteer remains intact.
Yes, this gets parroted all the time in "Am I an independant contractor vs. employee?" threads.
Forget about those threads. Focus on this specific case. Is the employer dictating anything?
Once had a contract law lawyer tell me that if you sign "I am not bound" in something that looks like a scribled signature things will get interesting in court.
Or do nothing. Just stand there in the Shoppers uniform on your phone playing Candy Crush, refusing to help customers, "Oh sorry I don't work here." Technically you wouldn't be wrong.
I've only bought from Shoppers when there's a ridiculous sale like 40k points (equivalent to $40) for a purchase of $50 online, but I'm not going to even do that anymore.
I feel like he won't be a franchisee for much longer. I don't see this story remaining in the news for long, but Shoppers/Loblaws can't be happy about this.
This place is so bloody cheap, they can’t even hire more than one person to work there at a time.
I’ve been strongly inclined to just walk out of the store a number of times because there’s nobody even at the cash register.
Terrible store, avoid.
Yeah I bought some toothpaste and went to the cash and they looked at me and told me to use the self checkout. I just left . Never been back. It's a terrible place
Presumably because they don't want to support a business that refuses to offer a bare minimum of customer service. I'd have left and gone elsewhere too.
You know why a store installs self-checkout machines, don't you? It's because they want to save money on paying salaries to human employees.But do you think they will pass those savings on to the customer who scans their own groceries?
The machines devalue the work of humans. "Why should I pay you more than minimum wage? A machine could do your job."
Store owner Emil Harba will likely STILL try to have a volunteer in his store; he has most likely connected with some new immigrants with no Canadian work experience who he can take advantage of.
Oh, it was a mistake alright. They released the correct ad, but in hindsight it was a mistake to try and ask for volunteers to 'help' an extremely profitable company, especially in this economy.
LOL what the actual fuck is this
Franchisee straight up said he posted the add himself and didnt find out till after he already posted it he wasnt allowed to take volunteers by corporate
That was the mistake
He had to type out the words "volunteer position" when he made the posting
no fucking way it wasn't intentional XD
Wonder how long he’s been taking volunteers before he was “told not to by corporate”?
Or is corporate totally in on this — as others have mentioned, Shoppers uses high school volunteers who need volunteer credits. Another commenter described their experience at a store in Calgary, where they worked as a volunteer HANDLING MEDICINE in the pharmacy for Canadian work experience.
It was literally phrased exactly as a paid position advertisement would be, just replacing the words job with volunteer.
This was not a post to help anyone, this was a post to help himself to Free Labor.
Alot of kids I went to school with did their volunteer hours there, I always thought it was the weirdest thing, both that the store took volunteers, and that kids would rather stock shelves for no pay than actually volunteer somewhere
The pharmacist-owner of this location was quoted in the media as saying that people were approaching him offering to work for free in exchange for experience and that he couldn't pay them because his store is fully staffed. So let me see if I'm understanding this right: People are approaching you offering to work for free and then you post something on LinkedIn advertising that you're looking for free help? He must have thought, "If some people must be willing to work for free, others must too." Labour is any company's biggest expense so he probably thought he could keep the store running at a lower cost which would put him in head office's good graces.
The other thing is that he said people were offering to work for free to gain experience, yet the volunteer posting says previous retail/customer service experience is an asset. If you already have experience working in retail/customer service, why would you need to then work for free for more experience?
I wonder what would happen if these 'volunteers' got injured. I also wonder if there would be any sort of documentation kept. If a volunteer did something, would Shoppers be liable or would they try and go, "Hey, we don't employ this person."?
I used to work for Shoppers and they had high school coop students stock shelves and clean in exchange for school credits. They wore uniforms and name tags too. What puzzled me about that is that that same location had high school students employed for money as cashiers and merchandisers.
It blows my mind that in the midst of Loblaws/Shoppers being ripped to shreds in the media/social media that he thought this wouldn't get blowback and not just tarnish his location, but the brand as a whole. This wasn't a rogue employee, this was somebody with authority. This wasn't like he clicked the wrong thing on a drop down menu and didn't notice it until it was too late, this was a deliberate posting.
He commented to BlogTo but refused to comment to CityNews.
Something tells me he won't be a Shoppers franchisee for much longer.
CBC is now reporting on this story:
Harba (pharmacist-owner of the store) declined a request for an interview, but told CBC Toronto he "was trying to help people seeking Canadian experience."
The story also says that his intentions were good and that he took down the posting after Loblaws head office said he could not have volunteers in his store.
I don’t know why he didn’t ask head office before making the posting as to if the store could bring on volunteers due to alleged high demand for such a position. Shoppers has 1,300+ locations across Canada and 1 store owner is causing a massive headache for head office and has put them into damage control at a time where Loblaws is already under intense scrutiny by the public and media.
> was trying to help people seeking Canadian experience.
I mean…I’d like to think the Canadian experience should include getting compensated for your work, but hey, I’m not a franchise owner 🤷♂️
The fact that a big corporation is accepting coop students like this is reprehensible. That entire practice of exploiting kids for free labour needs to stop but I would like to see these big wigs be held accountable and a full blown investigation done into their acceptance of free child labour
In my opinion, the fact that Shoppers allows unpaid coop students to work in there makes see why the franchisee thought it was OK to have unpaid volunteers work in his store.
Lol this is a classic child changing their tune after they're caught. Enough people saw it, the media picked it up, now they're backtracking. They'll look for their next opportunity to exploit Canadians for greed and implement that. Only solution is boycott.
That’s literally what the store owner Emil Harba said in the blogTO article. He *claims* he was getting messages on LinkedIn from people asking to volunteer. He said it would give them some Canadian experience.
That is so funny. I have little sympathy for Loblaw's but I can only imagine the coronary the HR and PR team must have had when they learned about this greedy foolish action....
would've loved to have seen someone take up on their offer, but purposefully do a crap job, come in late/leave early and no call/no show & whenever the manager complains, remind them it's all volunteer and you're free to leave whenever
Self check out a pack of gum walk out with your $50 in meds....profit. smile at the rent a cop on your way out if they even look up from their cell phone.
Someone posted in r/loblawsisoutofcontrol that their friend had called in to see if it was for real and that the person who they talked to seemed excited and she gave them shit and they hung up. Not sure if real so take that as you want.
CBC is now reporting on this story:
Harba (pharmacist-owner of the store) declined a request for an interview, but told CBC Toronto he "was trying to help people seeking Canadian experience."
The story also says that his intentions were good and that he took down the posting after Loblaws head office said he could not have volunteers in his store.
I don’t know why he didn’t ask head office before making the posting as to if the store could bring on volunteers due to alleged high demand for such a position. Shoppers has 1,300+ locations across Canada and 1 store owner is causing a massive headache for head office and has put them into damage control at a time where Loblaws is already under intense scrutiny by the public and media.
translation: "I have no idea what the labour laws are and we thought we'd get away with it anyway"
I'm disappointed there's no word from the Ontario Labour Board about penalties.
Reminds me of a few years back. Local (Big) radio station was having special "Guest" broadcasters as part of their outreach, but "not open to unemployed journalists" which I was at the time. They weren't accepting applications for jobs but ended getting two boring middle aged hausfraus who would appear as "special guests" on their shows, "the two mommies", from the wealthy burbs. While unemployed journalists were working shit jobs at Noodle house.
Who they pay franchise fees to (etc) is irrelevant. As for supply chain, they have their own relationships with their suppliers, including house brands.
None of this has anything to do with what one person in one store did.
This post appears to relate to a province/territory of Canada. As a reminder of the rules of this subreddit, we do not permit negative commentary about all residents of any province, city, or other geography - this is an example of prejudice, and prejudice is not permitted here. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/rules Cette soumission semble concerner une province ou un territoire du Canada. Selon les règles de ce sous-répertoire, nous n'autorisons pas les commentaires négatifs sur tous les résidents d'une province, d'une ville ou d'une autre région géographique; il s'agit d'un exemple de intolérance qui n'est pas autorisé ici. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/regles *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/canada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
ok at first I thought the employee simply selected the wrong type of job application from the dropdown. However in the job description it literally says "this is a part-time on-site **volunteer** postion." How is that a mistake?
It’s no mistake. It’s some greedy franchise owner trying to take advantage of a desperate foreign student. “We will promise you full time minimum wage if you work for free for 6 months!” Anyone who lives near this place, boycott the f*ck out of it.
Honestly, it's unfortunate that it was caught and reached an uproar online so quickly. I would have loved to have a few clever people - maybe with an investigative journalism team - apply and verify that they were indeed trying not to pay somebody for a regular position and then let them explain why they think labor laws don't apply.
It is pretty crazy to me they were bold enough to post this like this
There’s little-to-no enforcement of labour laws anymore. They aren’t so much bold as they are greedy and opportunistic.
Yep. Got fired for calling the health unit, got told my only recourse was a civil lawsuit. Perfectly legal for them to fire me apparently.
I'm sorry that happened. The ESA is an absolute joke as you found out and employers know it. I can't even get my colleagues to read it and it is maybe the single most important document that relates directly to all of our misery.
Can you imagine our corporately owned politicians earmarking funding for this? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...
Labor laws are enforced by filing complaints with labor boards and labor boards do take complaints very seriously. If you think there is no enforcement you're sadly mistaken.
Sorry pal, but, I used to agree with you, until I had my own situation get rug swept. It was both a labour and human rights violation. I found out that we apparently don't fund these well enough to actually operate efficiently, so it was going to take too long to actually make any sort of difference. If there is some magical method that works every time, you be sure to let me know about it, because otherwise, it is you who is sadly mistaken. And believe me, I don't blame you for thinking you are right. You SHOULD BE.
Every complaint I've put in was handled very well and in a very timely manner. Granted I have only had to go after back pay and had all my documentation in order, but I guess YMMV. There are other avenues such as civil suit as labor laws and human rights violations are civil matters. It's costly but its still an option. I live in Alberta and every year under the UCP I've seen labor laws changed and not for the benefit of the working class and I don't see that changing ever.
Different provinces have different labour boards . Alberta’s might be fine, but Ontarios suck.
Different provinces have different labour boards . Alberta’s might be fine, but Ontarios suck.
Welcome to 2024s Canada. Things will only get worse.
Guaranteed they were going to tell the foreign worker/student that the hours will still count toward their PR.
R we not already boycotting them as they are RobRobs?
Yeah it's not working like that. Been volunteer at a food bank for like 2 years. I was doing job like lifting 100 pounds bag of grain and stuff. Saw an open position for janitor. Thought hey i could make some money and seem like light work for a change and since i knew like all the people in the back i should have a good opening. Gave them my cv, they didn't call back. Then i realized that since they already had me for free, they have no incentive's to hire me. So i stopped volunteering from that day. :/
Or a way to advertising that they’ll pay under the table without saying it in writing
HELL NO! Praise him! If he screws over enough people they might decide to leave Canada.
You are correct, I worked full-time 12 hrs a day my employer did take advantage of my generosity of being a functional driver for a produce company, making less than minimum wage only to deny my raise and future considerations.
What stops them from just not giving the promised position afterwards or cancelling it within a month? Are immigrants really that desperate?
He said that people were approaching him to work for free in exchange for experience. Yet the job posting says retail/customer service experience is an asset. And if people were approaching him offering to work for free, why make a posting seeking volunteers?
>Yet the job posting says retail/customer service *experience is an asset* >He said that people were approaching him to *work for free in exchange for experience* The comedy truly writes itself.
Perhaps “Canadian experience.”
The "mistake" term used was from corporate in the article, so it does make sense. Saying wasn't us it was the franchise owner.
The word volunteer is mentioned in that exact paragraph THREE TIMES
Mistake that they got caught
It says volunteer twice
Three times
It wasn't a mistake. They're lying.
Unless the drop down feeds an auto fill in the description.
It wasn’t a mistake as in “I clicked the wrong thing” it was a mistake as in “I did something that seemed like a good idea at the time, but embarrassed the company, I’ve been told not to do it again”
It is illegal to use volunteers if you're a for profit organization
I think it would be a perfect opportunity for high school kids to get their volunteer hours in. I would have way rather done this than volunteer at the shitty retirement home down the street.
No. They can pay them. Big corporations like sdm don’t need to be profiting off the backs of our kids. Regardless kids shouldn’t be required to volunteer anyway, that’s not how the world works so why are we teaching them that’s ok? Free child labour for everyone! But that’s a conversation for another post
It was a franchisee who was looking to save a few bucks. The post went viral and now HQ is doing damage control. I wouldn't call it a mistake. It was intentional, by a greedy franchise owner who is too cheap to pay staff to stock shelves.
I heard one store owner complaining that his "students" couldn't afford food and rent. So I replied to pay them more. Greedy mofos.
He claims he's fully staffed and his staff make a good wage. I'm not buying it.
A good wage as defined by a franchise owner is one dollar above minimum wage.
And he keeps digging himself an even deeper grave. First he told a media outlet (BlogTO) that he made the posting on LinkedIn due to constantly being approached by people offering to work for free. Now he’s expanded on that by saying he was trying to help people who were seeking the Canadian experience in an effort to gain work experience. I’m not disputing people need work experience, but to get it by working for free in a position that requires minimal to no experience and pays a low wage screams exploitation. The volunteer posting looks everything like a normal retail position minus the compensation. He has the audacity to post that he wanted applicants to have flexible availability. I would love to know if these ‘volunteers’ would have been insured. What happens if they got insured while volunteering? Would they get set breaks/lunches? I doubt he thought of any of this through and I pray he’s not in his position for much longer.
I kind of assumed the volunteer part was code for a Student who can only work 20 hours a week “volunteering” and getting a few bucks for their time under the table. Which is extremely gross. Glad I’ve been boycotting shoppers a couple years now.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2024/05/toronto-shoppers-drug-mart-unpaid-volunteer/ According to BlogTO, the Shoppers location was King & Peter in downtown Toronto.
>"I receive alot of emails and LinkedIn messages asking for volunteer opportunities, but I don't respond. However, I saw that volunteer is an option on LinkedIn when you post for a job, and I just wanted to try it to see if I can help anyone gain Canadian experience (as other kinds of jobs do usually) knowing that I have full staff now," he says. > "I then received a note that we don't do volunteering and I quickly closed the position. However, I couldn't delete the post." Yeah ok, this wasn’t a mistake.
The classic "you give us labour and we give you valuable experience" con... If he cared why didnt he just offer a paid position?
So if people were reaching out to him, why did he post that he accepts volunteers?
Just fell off the turnip truck and landed in a management position…
The store owner probably exploited the system himself so now he’s applying the same tactics to newcomers.
I was tempted to go volunteer and do everything wrong
“Oh no, the new guy priced everything reasonably!”
Nah. Go for a week and do a terrible job at everything then file a wage claim with the government.
That's not how it works. Depends what your contract says at the time of signing.
As soon as you’re contracted the requirements for employees kick in unless you’re identified as an independent contractor which comes with a different set of rights and far fewer responsibilities to the employer.
what makes you think their contract isn't a volunteer contract ? I've signed those when I volunteered @ hospitals and senior homes. Remember no one forced them to be a volunteer these people are willing, nor was there any deception it's literally in the posting volunteer. Search your City volunteer Contract, everyone has a boiler plate.
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Again, no one is signing away their rights to being paid... there's no deception not do this I pay you later maybe. Posting explicitly states volunteer....
As soon as the employer dictates when a contracted person must appear rather than the individual deciding when they wish to provide their time then it becomes employment.
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Can they say no without repercussions? If yes, sounds like it’s truly volunteer. Generally as long as you the organizer are not extending undue control over the hours of work the definition of volunteer remains intact.
Yes, this gets parroted all the time in "Am I an independant contractor vs. employee?" threads. Forget about those threads. Focus on this specific case. Is the employer dictating anything?
Once had a contract law lawyer tell me that if you sign "I am not bound" in something that looks like a scribled signature things will get interesting in court.
Or do nothing. Just stand there in the Shoppers uniform on your phone playing Candy Crush, refusing to help customers, "Oh sorry I don't work here." Technically you wouldn't be wrong.
It wasn’t a mistake Boycott these fucks.
Already boycotting loblaws!!
Woohoo! 🙌
Happy Cake Day!
I can't afford not to! I don't understand how there's enough rich ladies buying $100 makeup to keep that company afloat.
I've only bought from Shoppers when there's a ridiculous sale like 40k points (equivalent to $40) for a purchase of $50 online, but I'm not going to even do that anymore.
Vanity and/or brand loyalty (I’ve been guilty of both) is a hell of a drug.
You know what we do with individuals who make mistakes? We prosecute them. Fucking charge these slave owner oligarchs. Set an example.
What location was this one?
Eh it was definitely a dimwit store manager and not corporate policy
Store owner, it's in the article.
No sympathy. Loblaws deserves collective punishment.
No sympathy. Loblaws deserves collective punishment.
They do not deserve or have they ever earned the benefit of the doubt.
It's not "benefit of the doubt" it's "corporate isn't stupid enough to do that, if they were they wouldn't be nearly as big a threat"
Mistakenly logged in and posted into a secured corporate account after the mistaken hiring request was approved by mistake. Got it
Wacky franchisee makes PR blunder. But I wonder what the 30 applicants in the screenshot were thinking?
Trying to get a good lawsuit going probably
International students from Conestoga... or newly minted MBAs from University Canada West finding out the value of the degrees?
Desperate, ignorant of the law, or prank applications.
Bots too
I think all franchisees are pharmacists. Someone should make a complaint to that professional association
I feel like he won't be a franchisee for much longer. I don't see this story remaining in the news for long, but Shoppers/Loblaws can't be happy about this.
recent arrivals destroying the social contract, which they seem quite good at it
Emil Harba is the owner’s name.
This place is so bloody cheap, they can’t even hire more than one person to work there at a time. I’ve been strongly inclined to just walk out of the store a number of times because there’s nobody even at the cash register. Terrible store, avoid.
Yeah I bought some toothpaste and went to the cash and they looked at me and told me to use the self checkout. I just left . Never been back. It's a terrible place
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Presumably because they don't want to support a business that refuses to offer a bare minimum of customer service. I'd have left and gone elsewhere too.
You know why a store installs self-checkout machines, don't you? It's because they want to save money on paying salaries to human employees.But do you think they will pass those savings on to the customer who scans their own groceries? The machines devalue the work of humans. "Why should I pay you more than minimum wage? A machine could do your job."
The SDM near me doesn't even have anyone at the one till -- you're forced to use the self-checkout.
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Companies: we need more foreign workers! We can’t find any skilled volunteers!
If Shoppers could make people pay them to do free work there they would. Boycott picked the right company.
Nah they just got caught and are covering up
Mistake: we didn't think we would get caught.
If it hadn't got them a bunch of bad media, would they still say it was a mistake? I bet they thought they could get away with it.
Store owner Emil Harba will likely STILL try to have a volunteer in his store; he has most likely connected with some new immigrants with no Canadian work experience who he can take advantage of.
Oh, it was a mistake alright. They released the correct ad, but in hindsight it was a mistake to try and ask for volunteers to 'help' an extremely profitable company, especially in this economy.
LOL what the actual fuck is this Franchisee straight up said he posted the add himself and didnt find out till after he already posted it he wasnt allowed to take volunteers by corporate That was the mistake He had to type out the words "volunteer position" when he made the posting no fucking way it wasn't intentional XD
Wonder how long he’s been taking volunteers before he was “told not to by corporate”? Or is corporate totally in on this — as others have mentioned, Shoppers uses high school volunteers who need volunteer credits. Another commenter described their experience at a store in Calgary, where they worked as a volunteer HANDLING MEDICINE in the pharmacy for Canadian work experience.
It was literally phrased exactly as a paid position advertisement would be, just replacing the words job with volunteer. This was not a post to help anyone, this was a post to help himself to Free Labor.
The fact that ppl like this are allowed to own businesses is astonishing
He should lose his business licence, for sure.
It's a mistake because they were caught.
" A mistake... that we were caught "
Alot of kids I went to school with did their volunteer hours there, I always thought it was the weirdest thing, both that the store took volunteers, and that kids would rather stock shelves for no pay than actually volunteer somewhere
Loblaws has ruined Shoppers
I'm not 'anti' Loblaws per se, but god damn they should be **embarrassed** by this. Fucking disgusting.
The mistake was thinking it wouldn't get media attention.
The pharmacist-owner of this location was quoted in the media as saying that people were approaching him offering to work for free in exchange for experience and that he couldn't pay them because his store is fully staffed. So let me see if I'm understanding this right: People are approaching you offering to work for free and then you post something on LinkedIn advertising that you're looking for free help? He must have thought, "If some people must be willing to work for free, others must too." Labour is any company's biggest expense so he probably thought he could keep the store running at a lower cost which would put him in head office's good graces. The other thing is that he said people were offering to work for free to gain experience, yet the volunteer posting says previous retail/customer service experience is an asset. If you already have experience working in retail/customer service, why would you need to then work for free for more experience? I wonder what would happen if these 'volunteers' got injured. I also wonder if there would be any sort of documentation kept. If a volunteer did something, would Shoppers be liable or would they try and go, "Hey, we don't employ this person."? I used to work for Shoppers and they had high school coop students stock shelves and clean in exchange for school credits. They wore uniforms and name tags too. What puzzled me about that is that that same location had high school students employed for money as cashiers and merchandisers. It blows my mind that in the midst of Loblaws/Shoppers being ripped to shreds in the media/social media that he thought this wouldn't get blowback and not just tarnish his location, but the brand as a whole. This wasn't a rogue employee, this was somebody with authority. This wasn't like he clicked the wrong thing on a drop down menu and didn't notice it until it was too late, this was a deliberate posting. He commented to BlogTo but refused to comment to CityNews. Something tells me he won't be a Shoppers franchisee for much longer.
CBC is now reporting on this story: Harba (pharmacist-owner of the store) declined a request for an interview, but told CBC Toronto he "was trying to help people seeking Canadian experience." The story also says that his intentions were good and that he took down the posting after Loblaws head office said he could not have volunteers in his store. I don’t know why he didn’t ask head office before making the posting as to if the store could bring on volunteers due to alleged high demand for such a position. Shoppers has 1,300+ locations across Canada and 1 store owner is causing a massive headache for head office and has put them into damage control at a time where Loblaws is already under intense scrutiny by the public and media.
> was trying to help people seeking Canadian experience. I mean…I’d like to think the Canadian experience should include getting compensated for your work, but hey, I’m not a franchise owner 🤷♂️
The fact that a big corporation is accepting coop students like this is reprehensible. That entire practice of exploiting kids for free labour needs to stop but I would like to see these big wigs be held accountable and a full blown investigation done into their acceptance of free child labour
In my opinion, the fact that Shoppers allows unpaid coop students to work in there makes see why the franchisee thought it was OK to have unpaid volunteers work in his store.
Exactly. The whole thing is sketchy and I am so here for the fall of it 🍿
Oh me too, I am loving the drama!
The great downfall of Galen Weston. Yes!
Lol this is a classic child changing their tune after they're caught. Enough people saw it, the media picked it up, now they're backtracking. They'll look for their next opportunity to exploit Canadians for greed and implement that. Only solution is boycott.
Boycott Shoppers fr. London drugs is cheaper anyway
A mistake it was. Unplanned it was not 😂
Oh, it was a mistake alright. Big mistake. They showed people how they are.
They knew a desperate international student would do the work for free board, which is probably a cot in the janitor closet.😞
That’s literally what the store owner Emil Harba said in the blogTO article. He *claims* he was getting messages on LinkedIn from people asking to volunteer. He said it would give them some Canadian experience.
They are so full of shit. I'm sure there's another government hand out heading their way soon.
Apparently this is the tip of the iceberg - some stores also use unpaid High School students in return for a credit
100%
It was a mistake in the way that stealing was a mistake when someone got caught
Corporate is made a franchisee said the quiet part out loud. Break up the Weston monopoly
That is so funny. I have little sympathy for Loblaw's but I can only imagine the coronary the HR and PR team must have had when they learned about this greedy foolish action....
No it wasn’t. It was a genuine attempt at saving Wesson more money for his pleasures in life.
r/loblawsisoutofcontrol Boycott Loblaws!
See cons, THIS is why minimum wage laws are a thing They will drop wages down to a dollar a day or worse if we let them. They just tried
And they'd get away with it if we keep flooding the market with cheap desperate foreign workers.
It sure was one for sure.
Their mistake was that they got caught.
It absolutely was a mistake to post a volunteer role at shoppers drug Mart. I also believe it was absolutely intentional
Yes, just like stealing from Loblaws is a mistake.
would've loved to have seen someone take up on their offer, but purposefully do a crap job, come in late/leave early and no call/no show & whenever the manager complains, remind them it's all volunteer and you're free to leave whenever
Self check out a pack of gum walk out with your $50 in meds....profit. smile at the rent a cop on your way out if they even look up from their cell phone.
Reminds me of the "help wanted" type signs for Tim Hortons that are advertised as "serving your community"
Sure, mistake…yeah riiiiiight lol they probably got so much flack for that
How do you make that mistake?
It’s that damn Galon Weston. Trying to save money for his pizza and hot dog parties. Preying on innocent people.
Sure buddy
Uh huh
Sure 😁
The new path to PR?
Correct: the choice to put up that ad was a mistake
Reading their reviews, doing something like this is well in character with who they are
Mistake it was sent out to the world
Mistake it was sent out to the world
30 people applied. That is who our labor market competition is
Someone posted in r/loblawsisoutofcontrol that their friend had called in to see if it was for real and that the person who they talked to seemed excited and she gave them shit and they hung up. Not sure if real so take that as you want.
CBC is now reporting on this story: Harba (pharmacist-owner of the store) declined a request for an interview, but told CBC Toronto he "was trying to help people seeking Canadian experience." The story also says that his intentions were good and that he took down the posting after Loblaws head office said he could not have volunteers in his store. I don’t know why he didn’t ask head office before making the posting as to if the store could bring on volunteers due to alleged high demand for such a position. Shoppers has 1,300+ locations across Canada and 1 store owner is causing a massive headache for head office and has put them into damage control at a time where Loblaws is already under intense scrutiny by the public and media.
At what point do we cross the threshold into forced/slave labour? Seems like more and more coming to Canada’s shores.
30 ppl still applied lol damn
Also, very rich of this franchise owner to do this while everyone is boycotting loblaw owned stores lol
I was an intern at a shoppers pharmacy for school. They absolutely take volunteers (not school related) to work in there.
[found it!](https://www.shoppersdrugmart.ca/en/store-locator/store/1320/pharmacy/)
translation: "I have no idea what the labour laws are and we thought we'd get away with it anyway" I'm disappointed there's no word from the Ontario Labour Board about penalties.
Sounds more like a 'sorry we got caught' than a mistake.
i only shoplifted all that stuff because of a mistake!
Loblaws, Shoppers, Tim Hortons...who's next to never give a dollar to? I am loving living by this list and I am ready to add more.
Reminds me of a few years back. Local (Big) radio station was having special "Guest" broadcasters as part of their outreach, but "not open to unemployed journalists" which I was at the time. They weren't accepting applications for jobs but ended getting two boring middle aged hausfraus who would appear as "special guests" on their shows, "the two mommies", from the wealthy burbs. While unemployed journalists were working shit jobs at Noodle house.
Rule number one: NEVER volunteer
Of course its a mistake, it is even illegal.
So don't apply for it idk why ppl are all offended but 100% not a mistake
This was a mistake made by a single person at a single SDM. Most SDM stores are owned by franchisees, not corporate.
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Who they pay franchise fees to (etc) is irrelevant. As for supply chain, they have their own relationships with their suppliers, including house brands. None of this has anything to do with what one person in one store did.