When Brian Horth, an elected foreman at Prince George’s Ketso Yoh shelter, was asked to find other homeless people to help staff a tourist attraction for last weekend, he was optimistic.
Now, he and the 15 other people he recruited are disheartened. Not only did their pay end up being well below minimum wage – they haven’t even received the money.
“We’re very disappointed,” he said.
“They put their heart into this, they all showed up, and they stiffed us.”
Ketso Yoh was one of several shelters approached by Helping Hands, an employment and resource centre for low-income people based in Illinois, to help with the Discover the Dinosaurs exhibit that was in Prince George’s CN Centre on Nov. 7 and 8.
It’s a large, walk-through attraction where children learn about dinosaurs through rides, games, and lifelike models.
According to Horth and Mel Aksidan, a Street Church volunteer, people at Ketso Yoh and the Active Support Against Poverty shelter were told they would get $50 U.S. dollars each day to help.
“They were hired to set up, clean up after the thing was done daily, and hired to tear everything down,” says Aksidan.
“They took the experience as something they could hold onto, because they did enjoy what they were doing.”
“It works out to about $65,” said Horth. “I thought that’s a few dollars in everyone’s pocket.”
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However, none of the people have been paid, despite being allegedly told they would receive cash as soon as the job was done.
“They promised them that they would pay them $50 a day U.S. cash when they were done their job. They were told they would be paid this last Monday, and nobody showed up to pay them,” said Aksidan.
“They were hurt that someone could take advantage of them like that.”
Global News reached out to Helping Hands and Blue Star Productions, which runs the Discover the Dinosaurs exhibit, but neither were available for comment Thursday evening.
In a statement on Friday, Blue Star Productions said:
It has been brought to the attention of Blue Star Productions (BSP) that there were some discrepancies surrounding temporary employment for the Discover the Dinosaurs engagement last weekend in Prince George, BC.
Discover the Dinosaurs is a traveling exhibit that requires more than 30 people in each city to run successfully. It is common practice to use local licensed, insured and bonded temp agencies to hire workers to fulfill the needs on the road. The contract BSP has is with the hiring agency directly; the hiring agency then contracts with the hired workers.
In the case of Discover the Dinosaurs in Prince George, BSP contracted work with Helping Hand Resource Center. After further investigation BSP has determined that the employees hired by, and the practices used by, Helping Hand Resource Center in Prince George did not meet our standards, causing BSP to end its working relationship with Helping Hand Resource Center immediately.
The contracted hourly rate between BSP and Helping Hand Resource Center was well in excess of the prevailing minimum wages. BSP assumed and expected the temporary employees would be paid competitive rates meeting or exceeding any legal wage requirements. BSP has also been assured that Helping Hand Resource Center is in the process of delivering all payments to the employees that worked in Prince George. In addition, BSP is working to ensure that the temporary employees hired by Helping Hands Resource Center in Prince George are compensated to meet any applicable wage requirements.
BSP wishes to thank those that brought this issue to our attention, and apologizes for any misunderstanding.
However, the Director of Programming for Helping Hands, Ron Valle, told MyPrinceGeorgeNow that Blue Stars pays them to staff the events, and the company uses the profits to fund their social programs.
“We were hoping that people would volunteer because they wanted to help out,” Valle told the website.
“But we do provide a stipend because we understand that people need to buy lunch for the day…it’s not a lot of money but it’s enough to pay for the expenses of volunteering.”
The Helping Hands Resource Center opened in October 2014 to help the homeless and former prisoners find education and employment opportunities. But in September, the Peoria Journal Star reported it was facing a lack of funds.
When Global News called Helping Hands, a message stated that as of Sept. 1, they no longer accept new clients. Their job placement programs is also currently on hold.
Horth and Aksidan say they’ve been told the money is forthcoming. But they’ll believe it when they see it—and say that regardless, the entire situation has been hurtful for the homeless community in Prince George.
“A lot of these people are discouraged, saying ‘oh, we’ll be ripped off again,'” says Horth.
The Discover the Dinosaurs exhibit makes its next stop in Vancouver, at the PNE Forum, this Saturday and Sunday.
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