A multinational company is laying off 30 Ottawa nursing home workers after an arbitrator ordered the company to pay some of its staff as much as double their original salaries.

The Compass Group — a food-service company that claims on its corporate website it earns annual revenues of more than $27.2 billion and employs 400,000 people worldwide — said it can't afford the pay increases. 

The company is pulling out of its contract at the Montfort Long-Term Care Centre on Feb. 12, and the company annouced Thursday that it is cutting the workers' jobs in the process.

Kitchen and housekeeping staff are getting at least $16.63 an hour since the arbitrator's ruling. Some were being paid as little as $8.25 an hour before.
(CBC)

The company, which trades on the London Stock Exchange, has a contract to provide kitchen and housekeeping services at the 128-bed francophone nursing home affiliated with Ottawa's Montfort Hospital. The agreement with the facility allows the company to terminate the contract provided it gives 90 days notice.

The long-term care facility is operated through a public-private partnership.

The 30 workers at the facility — who do cooking, cleaning, laundry and maintenance — used to earn between $8.25 and $14 an hour. However, the Canadian Union of Public Employees had been trying to get them a raise ever since the home opened in 2003.

Arbitrator backs union

CUPE argued that the workers should be paid wages closer to those at publicly run nursing homes. The union finally took the issue to arbitration, where a Nov. 9 ruling determined that the workers should be paid between $16.63 and $18.93.

That's what the workers started receiving on their last paycheque.

But five days after the ruling, the Compass Group announced it was pulling out of its contract with the hospital.

The Compass Group says it is ending its contract with Montfort Hospital on Feb. 12.
(CBC)

Compass spokeswoman Brenda Brown said the arbitration decision makes it economically unfeasible for the company to continue its contract at Montfort. She said the company will be terminating the contract on Feb. 12.

It is not clear whether another company will take over the contract.