‘It has been devastating’: Hamilton businesses close doors, pivot amid rise in COVID absenteeism

As Omicron rips through Ontario, the lights at Hamilton's Cake and Loaf Bakery are temporarily turned off.

It's not because there isn't enough business for the Dundurn Street South bakery known for their colourful cakes, delectable dessert bars and savoury pies, said co-owner Josie Rudderham.

There just isn't enough staff to reopen the shop after their regular holiday break, Rudderham said in an interview with The Spectator.

It has been devastating, the absenteeism, and not through any fault of our employees," she said. There are just too many people isolating, and there is no way to staff the store."

The shop was originally set to reopen this week, but that has been put off until the end of January due to COVID.

Cake and Loaf is just one of the thousands of businesses feeling the impact of absenteeism tied to the Omicron variant - the fallout of which could take billions of dollars out of Ontario's economy.

If Ontarians work 10 per cent fewer hours in January than usual, that would cost the provincial economy an estimated $4 billion, Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, told the Toronto Star.

Since the new year, nearly three dozen employees across Turkstra Lumber have had to miss work due to COVID, said owner Peter Turkstra. The Hamilton-based lumber business has nearly a dozen retail locations and two manufacturing plants spread out across southwestern Ontario.

As of Thursday, at least 16 staff members were still off the job, either due to infection or isolation after an exposure.

Turkstra said to mitigate risk for staff while still functioning as normally as possible, the company has opted to close their stores on Saturdays in January.

Obviously this hurts our sales, there is no doubt about it. Being closed on Saturdays impacts retail sales dramatically," he said. But for the sake of our employees, we felt like we had no choice."

Turkstra said if pandemic-induced absenteeism worsens, the company is also prepared to combine their stores and close others temporarily.

But of the staff that have been infected, Turkstra said none have been hospitalized with the virus - something he credits to the company's mandatory vaccination policy which was enacted in the fall.

That's just a fact," said Turkstra.

Other Hamilton businesses and manufacturers told The Spectator they've also felt the effect of COVID absenteeism, but they've been able to manage thus far.

At Fluke Transportation Group, vice president Steve Foxcroft said the company has seen absences in each department, but none had overlapped as of Thursday. Their isolation period for employees is seven days, he noted.

We've been fortunate," said Foxcroft, in an interview. We've had our share of it, but just enough in each department where it hasn't shut it down. We've also had people step up and make up the differences."

In a statement to The Spectator, Noah Farber, director of corporate and government affairs for Mondelez International, said while they've seen an increase in absenteeism across the company, they have not experienced any disruptions at their Ewen Road plant in Hamilton as of Wednesday.

We are working on contingency plans should staffing become a greater issue in the future," wrote Farber.

And at Maple Leaf Foods, which operates a facility in Stoney Creek, absenteeism is also on the rise, the company said in a statement.

All of our plants continue to operate," read a Jan. 11 statement. We have been making adjustments to production as necessary and reducing any non-essential activities to ensure we can continue to safely operate and deliver the nutritious food people need."

Back at Cake and Loaf, Rudderham can't imagine how the business will function when they do start operating again with the contagious variant circulating.

It's so likely that our staff will have to be isolated for one reason or another," she said, noting they've kept their employee isolation period to 10 days. It puts us in a situation where it's very difficult to know that our staff can work safely."

And after nearly two years of pivoting, ensuring staff are safe at work and weathering the mental drain of the pandemic, Rudderham said both ownership and employees are at a breaking point."

However, financially she is hopeful the bakery will be OK.

It's really hard to know at this point," said Rudderham, noting that their cash flows continue to shrink with each coming month. We're just really at the end of our ropes."

Fallon Hewitt is a reporter at The Spectator. fhewitt@thespec.com