Great Western offers pay increase for on-site employees

Great Western Brewing Company in Saskatoon is increasing wages for on-site employees until the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

In a media release on Friday, the Saskatchewan brewer announced a $3 an hour pay increase for hourly employees and a $125 per week increase for salary workers.

“In recognition of the continued dedication and performance shown by our employees during this difficult time, we will be increasing wages for all those who continue to work on-site at the brewery,” Mike Brennan, president and CEO of Great Western, said in the release.

He says this was the right thing to do for his employees despite the company taking a bit of a hit during this pandemic.

“Obviously we sell a lot of products in bars and restaurants and they are certainly impacted by this in a significant way so that does have an impact on our business and we’ve seen that,” said Brennan.

“But we have employees that are affected. Their spouses and other folks are affected by this with layoffs. So we are doing what we can to try and support all of our employees to the best of our ability.”

The company was forced to change a variety of operations and health and safety measures at its facility after the province declared a state of emergency on March 18.

“We’ve had to adjust our operations, the good thing in the brewing industry the main focus has always been on cleanliness and keeping sanitary processes in place,” said Brennan.

“We have even stepped up those processes just recognizing that we have to do the things that are being recommended by the government. Particularly physical distancing within our plant and also just increasing the amount of times we are going through a sanitation protocol within the brewery.”

However, while the brewery workers are receiving wage increases, some temporary lay off notices were issued to workers in the company’s packaging line so they can maintain minimum social distancing measures recommended by the province.

“The individuals that we have in the factory have to balance what they need to do with their family lives while also keeping our factory operating. So we wanted to recognize that,” said Brennan.

“Keeping people employed but with nothing to do is never a good practice but particularly now, having more people than we need to have in our facility at any time just doesn’t make sense which is why we took the approach that we did.”