MONTREAL - A group of health care workers, some of them with 20 years experience, say that they spent years toiling away at wages that were about half what they should have been receiving are they are now fighting for compensation.
The group of 130 workers, mostly women and visible minorities, specifically of black, Arab and Latin American ancestries, say that they were paid $10 to $12 per hour while by law they should have been paid at least $17 to $19.
The group originally made the complaint in 2008 and on March 31, 2011 the women were laid off by their employer, the Centre de réadaptation en déficience intellectuelle et trouble envahissant du développement de Montréal (CRDITED de Montréal - formerly known as the Centre de réadaptation Lisette Dupras).
The workers were hired by two different employment agencies, one known as SAPH and the other SAD. The agency had no other clients and has since shut down.
Workers hired directly by the hospital were paid the higher wage while everybody in the group that filed the grievance was paid the lower wage.
"Those hired by the agencies get paid by the agencies, I don't know what they got," said the centre's director Louis-Marie-Marsan.
He said the women were laid off not because they were looking for back pay but because they weren't sufficiently educated.
"We want employees with secondary five professional diploma," he told CTV Montreal.
One former worker appeared to be disheartened by the situation.
"I ask if they are human beings like us, why do they have to act like that?" said Micheline Alcindor
The case sees each worker asking for $20,000 in damages plus retroactive pay, which could cost up to $6 million to the centre.
Their case will be heard by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission (CDPDJ) and they will be assisted by the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
