The federal NDP is trying to explain a want ad seeking Punjabi-speaking phone canvassers who would be paid $4 an hour less than the party’s English-speaking canvassers.
The party pays all its phone canvassers $17 an hour no matter what language they speak, NDP spokesman Glen Sanford insisted Sunday.
“That’s our policy and our pay and we’re clear about it in all our ads,” Sanford said.
But that doesn’t explain why a Craigslist ad appeared in late July seeking “Punjabi-speaking callers for federal NDP voter ID calling” at a pay rate of just $13 an hour.
The ad was placed by Express Employment Professionals, a Burnaby-based agency that encouraged applicants to submit their resumes by email.
“Must be fluent. Must have some data entry experience,” the ad says, noting the “volume of work is extremely high.”
But Sanford said the NDP is “mystified” by the ad, which triggered an internal party investigation Sunday to see if anyone had approved it.
“This is not our ad,” he said. “We don’t sub-contract employment services. We recruit our own staff directly.”
Repeated calls and emails to Express Employment Professionals went unanswered on Sunday.
Sanford pointed to a separate Craigslist ad placed by the party seeking English-speaking canvassers for $17 an hour. The ad stresses other language skills — including Punjabi, Cantonese and Mandarin — are an “asset”.
“People who speak these languages are more valuable to us, not less,” Sanford said. “It makes no sense we would pay them less money, which we certainly do not.”
That didn’t stop the NDP’s opponents from pouncing on the contrary ads.
“This is not acceptable,” said Sukh Dhaliwal, the Liberal candidate in Surrey-Newton, who noted NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is calling for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
“He’s talking out of both sides of his mouth,” said Dhaliwal, who called on the NDP to provide a better explanation for the ads.
“People should be paid based on their skills and abilities, not on what language they speak.”
Sanford said the NDP is trying to contact the employment agency to see if the ad was “a mistake, typo or accident.”
Harpreet Singh, the Conservative candidate for Surrey-Newton responded to news of the ad.
“If this is true, this form of discrimination by the NDP is deeply disappointing," said Singh.
"That the NDP would demean the work of one group of Canadians by treating them as second-class workers is terribly insulting to Punjabi Canadians and an offense to Canadian pluralism. It appears the NDP is pushing a ‘do-as-we-say, not-as-we-do‘ policy on wages. Certainly, this stands in stark contrast to our Conservative Party’s respect for the diversity of Canadians.”
