Gilma speaks out… In 2012, I worked for a temp agency as a supply Early Childhood Educator for a few months. I had to go to a temp agency even though the work is infrequent and its low-paid because in that moment I didn’t have any other options.
I earned the minimum wage and I had lot of heavy work. I felt that instead of being the supply for one teacher, I was really doing the job of another two people who slowed down while I was working to cover a lot of the areas. I would leave work very tired. I had to wait for the agency to call me again to work. There was no guaranteed work, but I needed to go wherever they sent me under their conditions, because my husband wasn’t working at that time.
When time passed and I didn’t receive any wages, I started to worry. I asked for my wages so many times. They told me many different excuses. They said “don’t worry, we are going to fix everything.” The important thing for them was that I kept working. When they continued with excuses, I decided to stop working for them until they paid me my wages.
I received the payment 5 months after I’d worked. After I got tired of trying to get the wages myself, I decided to go to WAC. We worked together and in very little time I got my wages from the agency, plus vacation pay.
I want to tell the women who go to work in that agency after me or in other agencies that if they don’t know their rights at work they might lose their wages too. I took action because I was thinking about others – I don’t want the company to continue to break the law.