‘Teaching them the basic premise of scab labour’: Union advocates say Tim Hortons shouldn’t count as volunteer hours for high schoolers
Volunteer hours that take paid work from employees shouldn't be counted toward high school graduation, says the local labour council.
In a May 19 letter to the city's public school board, the Hamilton and District Labour Council (HDLC) urged the board not to reward kids by basically teaching them the basic premise of scab labour, which is to replace paid workers," president Anthony Marco told The Spectator.
In Ontario, students must complete a minimum of 40 hours of community service to obtain a diploma.
Student volunteer hours from Tim Hortons annual Smile Cookie campaign, during which proceeds from the happy-looking treats are donated to charities across Canada, prompted the labour council response. On its Facebook page, the organization posted a photo of a Tim Hortons flyer advertising volunteer hours.
Help decorate smile cookies at your local Tim Hortons from May 1 to 7 for volunteer hours," it reads.
If there were no volunteers to paint blue and pink faces on cookies, the task would go to paid workers, Marco said.
Some of those staff are other students or parents who are trying to help pay rent and feed their families," the letter reads.
The Smile Cookie campaign is just an example, Marco says, but it presented an opportunity to raise questions about ethics, in the same way unpaid internships - previously accepted as a rite of passage - have been challenged in recent years.
Whether for profit or charity, required community involvement opportunities shouldn't exploit a child workforce ... selling it to them as being part of volunteer hours," Marco said.
Other concerns include exposure to workplace risks for students as young as 13 and the fact that students are working for free for a multinational corporation.
In the letter, the labour council urges the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board to bar students from volunteering whenever activities replace a paid worker, the job typically requires health and safety training, or benefits a for-profit corporation (whether through direct profits or tax benefits).
HDLC has requested to delegate at an upcoming meeting.
But the Smile Cookie - a charitable initiative by a corporation - presents an ethical grey area.
The public board supports the campaign, which, in Hamilton, directs 100 per cent of proceeds to Food4Kids and Hamilton Food Share, said board spokesperson Shawn McKillop.
This is an acceptable activity in this business setting from (the board's) perspective," he said.
The board will honour Smile Cookie volunteer hours completed by 18 students at eight locations across the city, McKillop said, but will commit to reviewing it with Tim Hortons to be sure that it's not replacing workers usual work."
He also said the board has not received any formal correspondence" from the labour council.
Marco said this isn't unique to the local public board, the first they've contacted.
Catholic school board chair Pat Daly said the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School board has a long tradition" of Christian service, predating the provincial requirement.
It flows from our teaching with regard to preferential option for the poor and the common good," he said in an email.
Daly shared guidelines regarding volunteer hours that specify the activities should not normally be performed for wages by a person in the workplace" and work for any profit-making business" don't count toward the volunteer-hour quota.
The Catholic chair wasn't aware of any students volunteering with the Tim Hortons campaign.
Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com