Peachland cannabis company fired staff after union organizing

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A cannabis company with a grow operation in Peachland has been forced to rehire nine employees, after the staff were laid off after trying to form a union.

On Oct. 5 of this year, Potanicals Green Growers laid off the nine employees at the Peachland operation, including the master grower and head of security, as laid out in a recent B.C. Labour Relations Board decision. Eight staff were kept on board.

The month prior, staff had voted to apply for union certification with the United Food and Commercial Workers International union, Local 1518. But Potanicals told the employees and the union that staff were being laid off due to the company's “financial circumstances.”

Potanicals said the layoffs would be temporary, except for the staff who hadn't completed their probationary periods. The company did not say when they planned on rehiring the others back.

­Benchmark, Potanicals' parent company, posted an ad online just two days later, seeking 16 full-time general farm workers at the Peachland location. The company's executive assistant, Kristy Xu, testified to the Labour Board that this job posting had been done in error.

Potanicals argued it had proper cause to lay off the employees due to the company's “dire financial situation.”

Financial documents showed Potanicals suffered net losses every month in 2020, coming its closest to profitability in September, where it lost about $5,000. Benchmark, meanwhile, has “incurred millions of dollars of losses over its existence” according to the Labour Board, although it “was still showing a sizable about of cash on its books” as of June 30, 2020, largely due to its investors.

The union, meanwhile, argued it made no sense for the company to fire its master grower and head of security if it was simply a financial issue, as both positions would need to be rehired to comply with Health Canada regulations.

“[The union] argues that the only logical explanation for the layoffs was because the Employer believed that they were union supporters and to put an end to the union activities in its business,” said Najeeb Hassan, vice-chair of the Labour Board, in his decision.

Ultimately, Hassan ruled the company breached the Labour Relations Code by laying off the nine employees, finding that it was “motivated, at least in part, by the fact that the employees at that location had sought to be represented by a union.”

“The Employer’s consistently poor but apparently manageable financial situation begs the question, why did it suddenly have to layoff the employees immediately following the certification vote?” Hassan said. “I have reached the conclusion that it could have continued to 'limp along,' from month to month without the layoffs, just as it had earlier in 2020.”

As a result, the Labour Board ordered the nine employees be hired back and that a copy of the decision be sent to all staff of the company.