Halifax Workers’ Action Centre sees dramatic increase in demand

From workplace discrimination to wrongful termination, the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre says it’s wrapping up its busiest year yet.

The non-profit group, which offers legal advice and support to non-unionized employees, helped 300 people in 2023 alone.

Lisa Cameron, the executive director of the centre, spoke with Information Morning Halifax host Portia Clark to explain what that means.

Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

LISTEN | Why the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre is seeing higher demand:

Can you compare the jump of this year to last year?

It’s actually closer to a 66 per cent increase in call volume or intakes. Last year, we had about 150. This year, we had 250 solid intakes, so these are people who have received some more formal legal support such as help with the demand letter or assistance filing complaints.

But we’ve also seen an increase in just social media callouts of people who are reaching out for some sort of quick question.

Are these people who are maybe worried about losing their jobs or already have lost their jobs? What’s the range of issues, Lisa?

Our top complaint is wrongful dismissal, so over 30 [per cent] of people who have reached out to us over the past year have actually been dismissed already, and there are certainly people who are reaching out anticipating that they will be dismissed.

And what about temporary workers or other workers in terms of those who need help?

Many of them are on short-term contracts. Certainly, precarious employment is on the rise, so we are hearing more and more from people whose contracts are being terminated quickly, but where there isn’t really much in the way of fair dismissals — so not a lot of notice and things like that.

Do you think that’s behind this increase in the last year or so?

I would say that a lot of it has to do with the fact that the Workers’ Action Centre has had more publicity over the past year. I think with each public effort that we make, we are sort of met with more callers because people are learning about our service, but also because precarious and difficult employment is on the rise in Nova Scotia. I think the desperation is increasing as well and our call volume and intake volume is a reflection of that.

What are the common kinds of cases that you deal with? You mentioned the precarity of the employees, but what are they talking about when they talk about wrongful dismissal, for example?

Yeah. So 30 per cent of people in contact with us have been wrongfully dismissed and this is typically within two weeks of first contacting us. Wrongful dismissal or some complaint like that is our top concern.

We’re also hearing a lot about disability discrimination, so people who are in need of some sort of medical accommodation [that’s] not being accommodated or their disability actually resulting in their termination. Our third top complaint, nearly 20 per cent, are owed wages in some form and they’re trying to recover those.

But another massive complaint is just general bullying and harassment, and currently there’s no protection in Nova Scotia against this.

What about employees who thought they had a job to come back to, maybe after taking a leave? Is that common as well?

Absolutely. I’d also like to point out that homelessness is an increasing concern. I think the desperation is growing in Nova Scotia right now, so when someone loses their job … currently paying rent is a massive concern and so we’ve seen an increase in people asking for resources in that regard too.

Do people that you deal with know what their rights are as employees? I suppose if they’re coming to you, they feel that in some way they haven’t been treated fairly.

Yeah, in my experience, even if there is some knowledge of their basic rights, certainly there are always questions and I think like, in my opinion, the law was designed to be complex, and so it’s a nice thing to be able to help someone navigate their issue legally, whereas maybe before they wouldn’t have been able to.

Is that part of your role, to maybe educate around exactly what ground they stand on or what statutes might have been crossed in their dismissal or attempted dismissal?

Yes, education is a massive part of what we do and I think is part of every call, is to just get a conversation going about their rights and also hopefully get people excited to win better improvements.

How does it feel to do that to be able to help these people see their cases through, Lisa?

I think it’s a very empowering process for many people, of course. I mean, it’s not that it’s always positive. Many people are struggling a lot at the time, but for me, it’s really rewarding to give people the information that they need to take a stand against something that happened at work that was unfair.

People often don’t feel they have the power to take a stand against their employer. Do you hear that?

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that we often do is help workers write what we call a demand letter. This letter basically helps the worker assert their rights to their employer, and for many people this is a pretty empowering process to actually write a formal letter to your employer, submit one, and basically say this is how my rights have been infringed upon and this is what I am able to do about it.

And a dismissal can affect your future employment as well. As you mentioned, maybe it’s the line between losing your housing or not. I gather that 30 per cent of those that you work with are trying to survive on less than $30,000 a year. What are you hearing from those folks, especially with the cost of living being where it is?

Yeah, I mean like I mentioned, homelessness is a word that we’re hearing more and more. We’re hearing people asking questions about their rights as tenants. This is not something that we actually are able to really answer, but we can refer them elsewhere.

I started with the Workers’ Action Centre in 2018 and I can say with confidence that concerns about housing security are definitely much higher than they used to be.

What is your main piece of advice to someone who thinks that they have been wrongfully dismissed or they’re facing some of the situations that you mentioned around harassment at work?

Well, I mean of course the situation is poor in Nova Scotia. There aren’t sufficient protections.

I will say that many people call us and are surprised that they are able to do something about it. It doesn’t mean that what they can do is necessarily going to change their circumstance drastically, but it is worth looking into and with the cost of lawyers not getting any cheaper, we are there as a resource to help.

After such a busy year, what are your goals in 2024?

I think our goals are to keep up with an increasing call volume, definitely fundraise so that we’re able to continue and we have our tip theft campaign which we started this past summer and it’s going very well, we definitely want to keep the pressure on that.

This is to hopefully enact legislation in Nova Scotia that would prevent employers from stealing tips earned by their employees, as currently there is no protection.