| "Help wanted" signs in store windows are as ubiquitous as dandelions in Calgary right now as businesses desperately compete for staff and the labour shortage is hitting some small businesses particularly hard.
Tuanh Nyugen, owner of Pho Phuong Vi Noodle House on 17th Avenue S.W., says she’s currently working 16 hours a day, six days a week because she can’t find enough staff. If it weren’t for her niece and nephew, who are helping her out for the summer, she says she’d be in serious trouble.
"It’s really crazy right now. I really don’t know what to do," she says. "It’s really, really bad. I put out a sign. I put an ad in the newspaper. Nobody calls."
Nyugen says it’s almost impossible to compete for employees in Calgary’s current labour climate.
"You can only pay so high. The oil and gas companies pay big money. Who can afford to pay the same thing?" she asks.
"Sometimes people say if you don’t pay me $15 or $20 an hour I’m out of here. I don’t know what to do. If it continues like this and I can’t find staff I’ll have to shut down my business. I have no life at all. I go to work, come home and sleep and then go back to work."
She says if the government allowed her to, she would like to be able to bring employees over from Vietnam to work in her restaurant because she can’t find local staff.
Over in Inglewood, Melba Wallace, the owner of the clothing store Pendulum is currently short two employees.
"It means we’re having to work seven days a week," she says.
But she says there’s no alternative. "That’s what you do. You step up to the plate. You can’t close."
Jen Jans, manager of Kane’s Harley Diner, says her restaurant had to close at 3 p.m. for an entire year because she didn’t have any employees to work nights. It only reopened on evenings a couple of weeks ago because she finally found some staff.
"I was sent staff from an angel somewhere, but I know other businesses are still struggling," she says. "I think as an employee you could go anywhere and find a job. So many people are looking for people to work."
Jans says in her case she increased wages by $2 to $3 dollars an hour in order to attract new employees.
"I think the only thing you can do is have a great place for them to come to where people actually want to come to their jobs," she says.
Meanwhile, Gord Christie, executive secretary and organizer for the Calgary District Labour Council, is thrilled that the unemployment rate in Calgary is three per cent.
"Quite honestly, I think it’s fabulous," he says.
He says between 1983 and 1998, Alberta workers’ wages didn’t keep up with inflation, so now it’s "catch-up time."
"I think it’s extremely positive. This is something workers have dreamed of for years," says Christie. "I think (the boom) is cyclical and everyone knows there will be a bust and workers will take the brunt of that."
When asked about small businesses who can’t compete in the labour market, Christie says all businesses should pay their employees a living wage.
"I’d suggest to you that small business and large businesses and businesses in between have been getting a large break on wages for the last number of years," he says. "Why should workers have to subsidize your business at $8 an hour? If you can’t pay a living wage to your employees, you should not be in business." |
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