Cosmo defends stipend

Cosmopolitan Industries is defending paying people with disabilities who sort paper on its recycling line $150 or less per month after a national news story questioned the practice.

"It’s not a job, it’s an activity," said Ken Gryschuk, manager of community relations for Cosmopolitan Industries, the local non-profit agency known as Cosmo.

"For a large number of people employment is not something they’re going to have in their future. We provide them an (allowance) and they get something for their efforts."

The Globe and Mail, in a piece on Saskatoon’s ongoing debate over a curbside recycling program, reported Wednesday that some Saskatoon city councillors are "skeptical about the value of the charity but wary of being seen as opposing disability rights."

Referred to as "participants" by Cosmo, the disabled individuals typically have significant limitations in processing information and behavioural challenges that keep them from retaining other employment and are given an honorarium of between $68 and $150 a month, or an average annual amount of $1,250, said Peter Gerrard, Cosmo’s manager.

The amount is a "training allowance" for their work, Gerrard said, and similar to how a number of non-profit organizations operate in the province to give work to those with severe disabilities.

The hourly wage model doesn’t work for Cosmo, said Gryschuk.

"It’s almost an impossibility," he said.

"It’s almost unfair to try to do. The choice is our participants can either (come to Cosmo) or in many other places . . . just get nothing."

The organization functions as a "co-operative," Gerrard said, and employs more than 100 people at competitive wages to supervise about 400 intellectually disabled program participants, who also do a variety of other jobs outside of the recycling centre.

The non-profit agency, which has charity status, is exempt under provincial labour legislation from paying a minimum wage — currently $9.25 per hour — but allowed to offer a monthly stipend as a "sheltered workshop" or "activity centre," a social enterprise that provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The majority of program participants also receive social assistance.

Some provinces, including British Columbia and Alberta, have stopped allowing a pay structure that doesn’t provide minimum wage, saying the practice is outdated.

Cosmo, which has handled paper recycling for the city at its workshop for more than 25 years, spent 2010 fighting against a comingled curbside recycling system. Cosmo’s managers and board argue a comingled system where all material is thrown into one bin will endanger the operation because mixing in broken glass would make sorting dangerous for people with severe cognitive disabilities.

Coun. Pat Lorje said the focus on Cosmo’s participants has overshadowed the recycling debate despite assurances from the city they’ll be included in any future program.

"It is very unfortunate the debate over recycling has been painted as a picture of what do we do with Cosmo," she said. "There are many other issues we have to deal with. When Cosmo got assurance council would make sure that there was always a role on any go-forward basis I would have hoped it relieved any anxiety. I don’t think it has."

Lorje questioned the practice of paying workers different wages relative to other comparable jobs. Cosmo has other sorting line workers — who don’t have cognitive disabilities — who are paid a wage and often act in a supervisory capacity.

"Labour is labour and people should be compensated for their labour regardless of their intellectual disability," Lorje said.

Gryschuk said programs like Cosmo have to be looked at as a "different paradigm" because the people wouldn’t otherwise be employed. Using terms like "employee" or "worker" doesn’t capture the structure of Cosmo, he said. Those who would qualify for employment wouldn’t be admitted to Cosmo, he said.

"In calling them employees you get an idea that somehow they are hired or they can be fired," he said. "Nobody ever gets fired at Cosmo.

More than 100 people are involved in the cardboard and newspaper recycling operation, Gerrard said, or six to eight at any one time. Fewer than 50 of those are disabled workers, he said.

The city and Cosmo have an agreement in place governing how the depot recycling program is handled.

The city picks up the material — newspapers, paper and cardboard — from the depots while Cosmo sorts, bales and markets the product. The program diverts more than 14,000 metric tonnes of paper from the landfill each year.

Under a 10-year contract signed last year, any profits are split in half after Cosmo’s processing and business costs are accounted for.

In 2009, no profit was made and the city subsidized more than $250,000 in costs for pickup and abated $130,000 in taxes on Cosmo’s building.

In total, the city provided more than $600,000 in direct and indirect subsidies to Cosmo in 2009, a city report says.