WTF is this bullshit? Here I am perusing the HRDC Job Bank when I see an ad for a position that involves sorting recycling for 280 bucks a week, for 35 hours. Are you fist fucking me here? Who actually would take this job? The ad states: for youth 16-30; you telling me some 30 year old is going to commit 35 hours a week to make 280 bucks? Is that shit even legal? No wonder it’s always hard times in the maritimes… we got to take the power back!!! Out west that job would be 16 bucks an hour minimum. I’d like to see Nova Scotia employers turn down the suck and turn up the good.
—I’ll ride out my EI, thanks.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2009.
Better than living on the streets and bumming change.
I feel like there was some discussion of this on some ancient thread, someone talking about how they were working for that program and were expected to clean up garbage that included used syringes but without proper protective gloves, or something like that. I could be wrong though, memory is not my strong suit.
Move out West then cocksucker. I washed dishes for less than that to put myself through university. Fuck off, you’re entitled to nothing.
Costs about twice as much to live out west compared to here too.
I remember that too Mole Rat. I think I was left with the impression that Youth Live has a sketchy side.
Still though, that’s $8/hr. It could be worse, but it’s not quite minimum wage either. I lived off about 1100/mo for a while too and it wasn’t that bad. It’s not a career job, but it’s enough to get you by for a little while. I wonder how EI compares.
You’re right Ratter. There was a young guy doing unsafe YL work for crap pay and with no protective gear. I believe the consensus was “go to the Labour Board”.
MR— that’s life at all 3 garbage (not the compost plant, that’s a whole different story) sorting plants in the HRM area. YouthLive is simply a transition program for ex-cons and troubled youths, the recycling plant run by Miller, and the main site at Otter Lake run by HRM proper. YouthLive is a tiny operation, just located off of the Bay Rd in Lakeside, across from the Lakeside Industrial Park. They deal entirely in bottles and deposit recyclables at that site, and they do some off-site litter picking. The real shame in HRM as far as employment in that area is the actual Otter Lake site. Those people get paid to sort what equates to hazardous materials. Syringes, chemicals, you name it, they’ve got to deal with it. All for less than 13 an hour, and with little to no protective equipment.
Sounds pretty special!
The minimum wage for inexperienced workers in this province is just over $7 an hour.
This is the category that these guys fall in.
I think the minimum for unskilled work went up to $8.10 along with the minimum wage going up to $8.60 as of April 1st.
HRM using cheap labour through a 3rd party so they can then pay sky high salaries and benefits to their own staff.
It’s called the New Economy.
When will NSPIRG, EAC, NDP and Federation of Labour speak out against this exploitation ?
Dirty jobs should pay a premium.
Joe— third party is right. However, these sites don’t have 1 HRM employee on them. The Otter Lake site is run by Mirror Nova Scotia, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dexter (the same Dexter group that owns the rights to all of the provincial roadwork) and all of the labour is staffed by Atlantic Employment Services. Of course those jobs should pay a premium, however, if they paid those people what they deserve, there wouldn’t be much money in it, now wouldn’t there? Not to mention, the city looks good by having a “waste diversion plan”, that’s well on it’s way to being a farce.
Youth Live is like a chain gang. They lowball every contract they bid on, it puts a stress on other Nova Scotia recyclers. Also, I knew a guy who worked at Otter Lake – basically standing beside a conveyor belt sifting through peoples garbage all day long. He was a special kind of person.
Never put private information in your garbage, because it WILL be seen.
I know most of the dudes who work down at the YL place by SMU.
They love it there.
It gets them a steady job, and many of them go onto other things.
Why should cleaning up garbage pay a premium? It’s a pretty basic job and doesn’t require any special skills, so why should it pay well? Manual labour should be cheap. It keeps costs down. If you don’t like cleaning up trash for $8/hr, save up some money and go back to school. Jobs like that are supposed to be transition/starter jobs, not careers.
Um, how are you supposed to save up money to go back to school if you’re working an $8/hr job? Seriously.
Well, there are options. I worked for less than $8/hr and managed to get through University on my own. There are student loans as an option. My point really was that these jobs are not meant to be career jobs. It’s the kind of job that I would have worked when I was 16 to earn some extra cash or to try to earn some tuition money over the summer. I also lived on that much money while in school. It’s doable.
Also, if you are working an $8/hr job and are not satisfied with it, you can move on. If you have a good work ethic, I am sure there are other labour-intensive jobs that pay more (construction, carpentry, farming etc). So, even if you are no good at school, you can do better.
The problem is with people’s attitudes. “I won’t clean up shit for $8/hr…i’ll stay on EI”
Did you know that many farmers in the valley have to bring in people from Jamaica to work the fields because they can’t find enough workers in Nova Scotia? The farmers tried busing people in from Halifax but they couldn’t find enough people willing to put in an honest day’s work. All the Nova Scotians with good work ethics seem to have headed west and have left this province with a bunch of people who feel they are entitled to premium wages for working joe-jobs.
Miles, the reason why those jobs should pay a premium (especially at the Otter Lake site) is that they’re handling garbage, which can contain chemicals, urine, feces, other bio-hazardous waste, such as needles, etc. Someone on a Haz-Mat team gets paid double the normal rate for being a firefighter to be on the Haz-Mat team. They get all the appropriate gear to deal with chemical spills. These people stand by a conveyor belt, dealing with the exact same situations (a common example is the mixing of bleach and Windex, which creates a hazardous vapour, which can burn lung tissue) with nothing more than a pair of plastic gloves, a set of orange coveralls, and a DUST mask (no fresh air supply here), and for 14 hours a day (7 am to 9 pm). All for less than 3 times the wage for a Haz-Mat member. These people are the people who won’t do any better, as nobody CHOOSES to work at these sites. Some people in fact are just doing it because, well, that’s the best that they will ever do, given that it does pay a little better than flipping burgers and humiliating yourself in public.
I was speaking in general about manual labour jobs.
The issue of hazardous working conditions is a separate issue. I of course think that workers who deal with hazardous waste should be given proper protection and training. If that training is highly specialized, then naturally, the pay should reflect that.
i resent the negative reference to fist fucking-dont knock it til youve tried it=-at least twice-lol
guy truly youthlive isnt that bad i worked there and did the 6 months and i was the only girl there pretty much the whole time i needed the money and it wasnt that bad and they treated you well there and at the time i worked there 8 bucks was good and i made 554 every 2 weeks clear so hey paid my bills.