Unpaid waiting-around time before shifts has restaurant employees fuming

Even though it's illegal, some Montreal restaurantsexpect staff to show up on time for a shift but not to punch the clock until the manager gives them the green light.

Busboy Antoine Febres-Gagn, 19, said he was expected to arrive at work at the L'Gros Luxe in Old Longueuil at the start of his scheduled shift, but then wait until his manager told him to start working.

The time spent waiting at the restaurantwas not paid.

"Most of the time, when I'd get to work, I have to wait an hour, an hour and a half hoping that the owner or the manager would come see me to tell me that I could enter and punch in," Febres-Gagn said.

Febres-Gagn worked at the restaurant for a month last fall and was then fired for absenteeism.

Expecting employees to arrive at work then wait before punching in violatesarticle 57 ofQuebec's Labour Standards Act, according to Johanne Tellier, the director of Quebec's workplace health and safety board, known by its French acronym, CNESST.

She said if employees areexpected to be at their workplace"they are considered to be at work," even if the employer doesn't give them any tasks.

To prove unpaid waiting-around time was expected of him, Febres-Gagnrecorded a conversation with the manager of the restaurant, Emmanuel Blanger, who refused to pay him "because he wasn't working," he said.

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Another former L'Gros Luxe employee, who askedto remain anonymous for fear that speaking out would affect his current employment, said that unpaid waiting before a shift is a practice across the chain one that causes a lot of frustration among staff.

Unaware of any illegality, says owner

L'Gros Luxe owner Alex Bastide said he never received a complaint about the practice and that he was unaware it's illegal.

"I didn't know it was illegal. We'll adjust our approach," Bastide said.

He added that he would now manage employee schedules differently and confirmed he would reimburse Febres-Gagn more than $300.

L'Gros Luxe, however, isn't the only culprit, said longtime waiter Marc Charbonneau.

He said for almost four years, he worked at another unnamed restaurantwhere unpaid waiting time was expected of him.

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