Baristas at Smiling Goat coffee chain vote to unionize, say they're victims of 'wage theft'

Workers at four Halifax coffee shops, part of the Smiling Goat chain, have voted to unionizeafter they say they've goneweeks without being paid.

A group ofemployees spoke Friday about what they called "wage theft" after their paycheques started bouncing. Over 45 paycheques have bounced since September, the union estimates.

CBCNewsspoke to a dozen employees in totalwho all said they've had at least one cheque bounce.

Thebaristasare nowpart of theService Employees InternationalUnion, a North American organization that has about two million members.

"I am owed over $1,700 in unpaid wages. I'm blowing through my savings trying to pay rent and feed myself. I'm terrified about what happens when my savings start to dwindle," said Emerson Roach, who has worked for Smiling Goat for three years.

Since December, Roach sayssix chequeswere all returned because of insufficient funds.

The18 workers atfour non-unionized Smiling Goat locations, owned by businessman Kit Singh, will now joinapproximately 20 unionized workers fromtwo otherlocations formerly owned byJust Us!. Singh bought those Just Us! cafes in Halifax and Dartmouth in September 2017.

The problems with paygot public attentionearlier this week when employees wrote about their plight on a sign outside one of the Smiling Goat locations in downtown Halifax.There are five on peninsularHalifaxand one at Dartmouth's Kings Wharf.

The company's Facebook page says it is planning to open another location on Washmill Lake Drive, near Clayton Park.

The cafe workers who had been unionized prior to this week were entitled to health care benefits, which they say they haven't received since November.

"I'm struggling to pay for my life-saving asthma medication,"Roach said. "I am racking up hundreds of dollars in medical costs. Soon I will have to start choosing between paying for rent and paying for the medication that literally keeps air in my lungs."

The union said it hasfiled a grievance with the Nova Scotia Labour Board about the bounced cheques. It also has agrievance before the board regardingemployees who were not given records of employment.

Employees said they have been given a litany of reasons for the lack of pay.

LoganLefortrecently started working at the Smiling Goat and said he has yet to receiveany pay.

"I've never been paid. I'm owed near$1,200in wages I've neverreceived. I've contacted my boss in order to receive these wages and have been greeted with him just ignoring me he's since attempted to fire me."Lefortsaid.

CBCNews has tried multiple timesto reach Singh to discussthe allegations but has not heard back. On Friday,phones atSmiling Goat coffee shops were not being answered.

The union saidSingh is on vacation and was expected to return Friday.

CBCNews also spoke to several former employees who saidthey had to fight to get paid.

Dana-Lynn Farrell, who started working at the coffee shop in December, said employees were told not to call in sick and taking breaks was discouraged.

"The paycheques would all just be handwritten, chucked into an envelope and we'd all have to rifle through everybody else's paycheques to find our own," she said.

"We never got pay stubs. They requested our social insurance numbers over email, which is ridiculous."

In February, she noticed her last paycheque was not able to be deposited. When she tried to contact her employer through the work appused for communication and scheduling, she saidshe was kicked out and blocked from accessing it.

Jenna Liang, a student at Dalhousie, worked at the Smiling Goat for eight months until April 2017. She saidwhile she never had chequesbounce, she constantly had to fight to get her pay.

"He would always make excuses about why he was so busy he couldn't stop by a [caf] location to drop off the cheque," she said.

Liang saidher number of shifts were cut back without warning, to the point where shewas down to one shift a month.

"I think he [Singh] was definitely taking advantage of the fact that a lot of people were students and were younger, and didn't have the luxury of being able to find a service job elsewhere in Halifax."