B.C. cannabis stores laying off staff as job action halts deliveries

Running out of product due to an ongoing strike by the British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), cannabis stores across B.C. are closing their doors and laying off a significant number of staff.

• Mood Cannabis has cut 90 per cent of its workforce at two of its stores in Nanaimo
• Flora Cannabis has temporarily laid off 30 employees

Supplies started to dry up after the BCGEU, which represents around 33,000 public-service workers in the province, began its fight for better wages on August 15, 2022.

The union set up picket lines at four Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) wholesale and distribution centres.

While retail liquor and cannabis stores are not part of the strike, the cannabis division of the Burnaby customer care centre is. In response, the LDB announced that its cannabis distribution centre will not:

• Accept or ship product
• Assemble orders
• Process invoices
• Purchase orders

In an email to CBC News, Jaclynn Pehota, Executive Director of the Retail Cannabis Council of B.C., said it’s likely that 30 per cent of legal pot retailers in the province will not reopen once the job action is resolved.

Members reported 10+ stores closed over the weekend. Closures will drain the shelves of stores with stock even faster.

This is an accelerating system failure for legal retail.

If the legal systen is how you buy cannabis. Call your MLA and tell them you are losing access.

— The Retail Cannabis Council of BC (@rccbc_ca) August 29, 2022

In a letter to Premier John Horgan, the organization is calling on the provincial government to take immediate action to protect B.C.’s legal cannabis sector.

“If these businesses are not offered immediate financial relief to secure their payroll and pay hard costs, many of these businesses will close forever, and B.C. will permanently lose market share to the black market.”

READ MORE
• Aurora Cannabis laying off 12% of workers, reorganizing
• Canopy Growth Layoffs and Severance Pay
• Layoffs in Canada

Termination agreements for cannabis industry employees

Non-unionized employees and senior executives in the cannabis sector are owed full severance pay when they lose their jobs due to downsizing or corporate restructuring.

Severance in B.C. can be as much as 24 months’ pay, depending on a number of factors.

LEARN MORE
• Severance packages in mass layoffs
• Employment lawyer on worker rights in the event of a layoff

WATCH: Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru explains what rights employees have if they are being fired or let go on an episode of the Employment Law Show.

Before you accept any severance offer, have an experienced employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP review it and your employment contract. We can tell you if what you have been provided is fair and how to get proper compensation if it falls short of what you are actually owed.

If you aren’t given the full amount (which happens often) you have been wrongfully dismissed and are entitled to compensation.