A letter telling employees at CrossRoads Brewing not to discuss their wages has gone viral on Facebook and Reddit.
The letter was written by CrossRoads owner Daryl Leiski and states that any query about wages will be deemed a letter of resignation.
“My business mentor had made it a policy that anyone asking about other peoples pay rates, they were essentially submitting their resignation at the same time. Moving forward this is a policy of CrossRoads: If you want to know what someone else is making, you can ask them, (very uncouth) or you can ask me. If you ask anybody or you are asked please direct the questions to me or direct the person asking the questions to me. This query will be deemed to be a letter of resignation and I kindly ask that this be stopped.”
The letter garnered hundreds of comments online with some supporting the letter and many more calling it unethical.
The situation even made an appearance on the popular northerncapital memes page on Instagram.
In Canada there is no specific law that prevents employees from publicly discussing their salary.
As of March 7, B.C. introduced the Pay Transparency Act, which, if passed, will make it illegal for employers to dismiss or discipline employees who ask about their pay or reveal their pay to another employee.
Leiski released a statement on the CrossRoads Facebook page calling the situation “exceedingly embarrassing” and “not a reflection of how my employees are treated or paid.”
He said the letter was an ill-thought response to very specific issues within the organization.
“No person has been dismissed, nor will they ever be dismissed for talking to each other about wages,” said Leiski.
“It was an unfortunate, off the cuff response and I am humbled by the response from the community.”
