Employer threatens to fire YVR Airport security staff over sick day protest
The company that employs security screeners at Vancouver International Airport has accused its workforce of purposeful absenteeism and threatened to fire staff found guilty of it.
A record 143 Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) staff were absent from work at YVR on Sunday, according to an email sent to employees and obtained by Daily Hive Urbanized.
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The lack of security screeners led to closed checkpoints, hours-long lineups, and flight delays at the airport Sunday. YVR has said security lines are moving normally again after the weekend chaos.
“We believe a large percentage of this absenteeism is willful,” Allied Universal said in an email to workers. “Employees who intentionally absent themselves from work without justification … will be subject to discipline up to and including termination.”
Allied added that any employee who organized or encouraged others to stop working would be fired.
An August 29, 2022 email from Allied Universal to CATSA staff at YVR (Submitted)
Workers protest conditions by calling in sick
The long lines coincided with the end of Allied’s incentive program that gave staff a bonus for perfect attendance. A worker at YVR who spoke to Daily Hive Urbanized on condition of anonymity said many workers called in sick Sunday as a form of protest.
For months the unionized employees have been calling for better pay and more adequate staffing levels to deal with the stressful job — which sometimes gets so busy that staff have to delay their bathroom breaks.
Screening officers at YVR are paid $18 to $22 per hour, which puts many below the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s living wage in Metro Vancouver of $20.52 per hour.
CATSA contracts Allied to staff its security checkpoints at YVR, and amid calls for raised wages this summer, it introduced an attendance bonus. CATSA told Daily Hive Urbanized it had finite funds, and that’s why it chose the incentive program instead of raising wages.
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