Freshii

Union leaders 'disgusted' as restaurant chain develops 'labour optimization programs' that outsource jobs to countries that pay less.

Sector-specific research, meanwhile, has detected a drop in jobs in grocery stores and food retail. An increase in outsourcing and automation may prove to be one of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic legacies. Sobeys introduced “smart carts”: shopping carts that scan shoppers’ items, track total bills, accept payment and let them skip the checkout line. In Ontario, where the minimum wage is $15 (Canadian), Freshii’s virtual cashier program could potentially save the company $10 or more an hour. Some companies have relied on outsourcing, rather than automation, to reduce labour costs. While a call centre worker in Ontario earns a minimum $15 an hour, a worker in India earns on average $0.35 (Canadian) an hour, a worker in the Philippines earns $1.65 an hour and a worker in Bangladesh earns $0.11 an hour. Research on Canadian automation contains mixed findings. Instead, at least some of them process orders from a Nicaraguan call centre nearly 6,000 km away, where they earn much less than Ontario’s minimum wage. Unlike the Freshii workers that wrap burritos and mop floors, these “virtual” workers are nowhere near the store. “It’s just like any other kind of outsourcing: if you’re sending jobs to people in a different country, you’re only obligated to comply with the labour standards of that country,” said Jonathan Pinkus, an employment lawyer and partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP. “Being virtually present in Ontario doesn’t change that.” But employees at the company’s franchise locations told the Star they’ve been aware of the program since November. The Star verified three locations in Ontario that use these virtual cashiers — two in Toronto and one in Waterloo. One of the locations, in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood, has been using a Percy cashier since January. The program is only in the early stages of testing, but Freshii’s virtual cashiers are part of a wave of outsourcing and automated technology that is slowly changing Canada’s retail industry.