By Gil McGowan, AFL Staff

EDMONTON – Many of the people working at food booths at the "Taste of Edmonton" festival – held in downtown Edmonton July 20-25 – were not paid for their work, the Alberta Federation of Labour has learned.

After receiving several complaints about work arrangements at the popular annual festival, the AFL sent two staff members to investigate.

"What we found was more than a little bit disturbing," says AFL Secretary Treasurer Les Steel. "We spoke with about thirty people from 15 different restaurants. Of the 15 restaurants, seven were paying their staff to work at the festival and eight were using volunteer labour."

Among the restaurants that used paid labour, most paid their staff the same wage they would have earned for working a regular shift. One restaurant actually paid its employees extra to work at Taste of Edmonton to compensate for lost tips. The same restaurant also covered parking costs for employees working the festival.

On the other hand, some restaurants paid their employees either nothing or very little. One hotel restaurant employee said he and his co-workers were given 10 festival tickets each (a value of $7) in exchange for three or four hours of work.

"These restaurants convinced their employees to volunteer their time," says Steel. "They convinced them that the festival was some kind of special event or promotion during which the normal employment rules no longer apply. This is certainly inappropriate and we thought something should be done about it."

Steel says the AFL contacted the government’s Employment Standards office and encouraged them to investigate. An inspector was sent down to the festival and a letter was eventually written to participating restaurants reminding them that food fair workers should be paid.

But no further action was taken because the employment standards office received no formal complaints directly from workers.

Steel was disappointed with the lack of action, arguing that the department should have stepped in even without a formal complaint. He says the workers may have been too intimidated to come forward or they may not have know their rights.

"What happened at the Taste of Edmonton was that some employers were essentially asking their employees to work for free," says Steel. "That might have been acceptable if the money from sales was going to charity or if the workers were engaged in some kind of volunteer activity for the community. But these workers were basically doing their regular jobs and the money went straight into the owners’ pockets. From our point of view there was no good reason why these workers shouldn’t have been paid."

Steel says he has no beef with the Klondike Days Association, who organized the festival, or any of the restaurants who have been paying their employees.

"We know that the problem lies with individual employers and not with the K-Days Association. And it’s certainly not our intention to give Taste of Edmonton a black eye," he says. "By calling for an investigation, all we were trying to do is make sure people working at the festival were treated fairly by their employers. It’s a shame that the government didn’t act more aggressively to protect the rights of these workers."