Sick, grumpy, late staff a headache for Elections Canada in May 2 vote
Posted July 10, 2011 1:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – If your local polling station opened late for the May 2nd federal election, you can probably blame a part-time Elections Canada employee who slept late, called in sick, or quit in a huff.
Internal records from Elections Canada indicate that no-shows were responsible for dozens of late openings across the country on election day.
The incidents range from staff who quit because they didn’t like their co-workers, to others who felt pay rates were too low at about $13 an hour.
In one case, two workers shut their polling station to take an unauthorized meal break _ and were ordered back on the job by the RCMP.
A spokesman for Elections Canada says the problems are only to be expected in a workforce that swells to 100,000 part-timers on voting day.
