"Constant state of panic": Ex-Solly's Bagelry employees speak out

SJ remembers the moment she decided to quit Solly’s Bagelry.

It was May 15, 2021, and she had just gotten her first COVID-19 vaccination. She’d had to push it back because the shop’s owner, Leah Markovitch, allegedly told her scheduling the shot during work hours was completely unacceptable — despite BC’s recently introduced legislation giving workers three hours of paid time off to get immunized.

When SJ informed Markovitch she might be ill the next day due to side effects, the owner allegedly called her and accused her of not being a team player.

That’s when SJ quit. Markovitch allegedly said resigning looked bad on the university student and urged her to re-think the “mistake.”

“I just remember being terrified of going to work and being in a constant state of panic,” said SJ, who Daily Hive has agreed to identify by her initials.

When asked about the alleged breach of employment law, a representative from Solly’s characterized what happened as “someone walking off the job with little regard for other team members.”

SJ’s vaccination debacle is just one of many alleged instances of employee mistreatment at the popular Vancouver bagel shop and Jewish bakery. The young workers Daily Hive spoke with were just looking for a convenient job to complement their studies, but say they wound up in an unexpectedly toxic environment. Allegations include enduring shouting outbursts from the owner, working unpaid overtime, and being told to replace missing cash in the till with personal money, particularly concerning for an establishment that employs many newcomers to Canada.

SJ remembers being pressured to finish sandwiches quickly, often with Markovitch hovering over her shoulder, and being reprimanded for finishing seconds too slow.

“I’ve never seen a manager who was willing to yell at her employees like that in front of customers,” she said. “I remember [Markovitch] yelling at one employee but having to get a different employee to translate. It just blew my mind.”

Yelling at employees in full view of customers was a common complaint about the business. Rowan*, who worked at Solly’s for five months in 2019, distinctly remembers being shouted at for agreeing to make a substitution in a sandwich.

“I feel like we never knew what was going to tick her off,” Rowan said. “The customer was apologizing, saying, ‘I hope you guys are okay.'”

Cinnamon buns at Solly’s (Daily Hive)

Solly’s has three locations in the city — one in Kitsilano, one on Main Street, and another at Yukon Street and 7th Avenue.

It was founded by Joe and Leah Markovitch in 1993, according to information on LinkedIn. Over the past three decades, it’s grown from a neighbourhood bakery to a multi-location retail and wholesale operation with a central production facility.

Joe exited the business in 2009, and Leah is now the CEO and president.

But if you look at the business’ reviews on Facebook, Google, or Yelp, you’ll find many customers recounting unpleasant experiences where management was berating staff. Uber drivers frequently complain that they’re treated rudely as well.

Google Reviews

“Delicious cinnamon buns atrocious working environment,” is how one Reddit user summed it up.

Teens working first job allege wage theft

Jade, who worked at Solly’s for several months during the 2013-14 school year, remembers being told to clock out at the scheduled shift end but being made to stay and finish closing duties unpaid.

Jade said they’d typically stay 20 to 30 minutes after a shift, and it happened often enough to feel routine.

“It was a pretty classic wage theft issue,” Jade, who Daily Hive has agreed to identify by first name only, said.

Jade was in high school at the time and needed the money during university application season. They never reported the alleged wage theft to the Employment Standards Branch, but looking back, they wish they had.

“I was pretty young, and I didn’t really know how to stand up for myself,” Jade said. “The food industry is just rife with precarious labour and a lot of workplace exploitation. It’s an industry that thrives on people not knowing their rights.”

SJ also said Markovitch tried to withhold money from her final paycheque — allegedly trying to deduct a $10 fee when the initial cheque got lost in the mail.

A bagel with cream cheese and lox from Solly’s (Daily Hive)

Alexa* started at Solly’s a few months after Jade left. She was 19 and came to Canada through a now-defunct program for newcomers to learn English for six months followed by work experience.

She was keen to work in the food industry because she’d studied culinary arts back home. Solly’s was Alexa’s first-ever job.

One day, while training at the Main Street location, her manager discovered the cash register was short $3. He allegedly forced her to repay the machine with cash from her wallet.

Alexa asked if it could be deducted from her paycheque, but the manager allegedly insisted on cash.

“It was $3, it wasn’t much, but the fact they made me do it in front of everyone … I just felt bad. I felt humiliated.”

A spokesperson from BC’s Employment Standards Branch said they couldn’t comment on specific allegations but confirmed the law prevents employers from withholding wages for any reason — except for income tax. It’s illegal to require employees to cover any business costs, or to make them cover business expenses such as cash shortages.

Alexa also alleged the same manager made inappropriate comments — and once pulled her aside to say he could see her underwear through her leggings.

Alexa quit Solly’s after working there for only a month.

“It was supposed to be fun for me, learning English and working in another country. And I wasn’t enjoying it. I told my parents, ‘I prefer to go back to school,'”

Eight years later, Alexa has a degree and a career in human resources, and just this year moved back to Vancouver. She now knows what happened at her first job wasn’t ok, and doesn’t want others to have the same experience.

“I got off from there and I cried,” she said. “I didn’t know, at the time, that there were rules here.”

Solly’s closes due to shortages of employees

Customers line up at the Solly’s location on West 7th Avenue (Daily Hive)

Solly’s has run into some trouble with employee retention in recent years. It had to temporarily close in 2017 and again in 2018 due to a lack of workers — before COVID-19 made that commonplace. At the time, Markovitch gave interviews to local media, telling CityNews 1130 that there weren’t enough young people in the area willing to stick with the job.

She’s also previously called for relaxations to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program for overseas workers to be brought in more quickly.

BC’s Employment Standards Branch has processed nine complaints about Solly’s Bagelry in the last decade, a spokesperson confirmed to Daily Hive. The ESB would not elaborate on the nature of the complaints.

“Employment standards will get complaints from many people, usually those that don’t understand the rules and complain,” Solly’s said in a statement.

A promotional poster has been vandalized in the doorway of Solly’s on West 7th Avenue that features a photo of Leah Markovitch. (Daily Hive)

The bagel shop didn’t answer Daily Hive’s questions about the other allegations. In an emailed statement, someone who identified themselves as an office administrator for Solly’s said many employees have had great experiences at the shop.

The Solly’s spokesperson alleged employees are treated worse at other food-service establishments and said Solly’s has given opportunities to hundreds of “new immigrants, homeless, abused women, some of whom could not speak a word of English but needed a chance,” over the years.

“You should speak of how [Markovitch] employed the unemployable in Vancouver to give them a leg up, a start, a chance,” the spokesperson said. “You should speak of how she worked every single day alongside … employees through the two-plus years of COVID … sharing the money given to her by the government as bonuses to employees who came to work.”

Solly’s said Markovitch has also let new workers stay in her home for free until their first paycheque came in, assisted women with medical concerns, and mentored teen employees with “no shortage of attitude … from very entitled families with equally entitled helicopter parents.”

“You don’t know anything about Solly’s and the amazing things it has achieved,” the spokesperson said. “Solly’s is one of the few businesses in Vancouver with some character, energy, and personality that are left.”

All the workers Daily Hive spoke with have moved on to different jobs they say have much healthier environments. They left Solly’s when things became unacceptable, but they worry that since many employees are students or newcomers to Canada, not everyone will have the same ability to advocate for themselves — or the financial cushion to quit and find something else.

SJ added it’s important that word gets out about how Solly’s treats employees not only to protect prospective workers but to encourage Vancouverites to spend their money at local businesses that treat their employees well.

“I think it’s important to know who you’re buying from,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should be buying from someone who makes their employees feel like they’re going to have a panic attack at any given moment.”