Local business owner states employees subjected to abuse daily

Aug 6, 2020 | 2:59 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “You’ve got employees who are doing their level best to provide an opportunity for people to come together to share a meal in a safe comfortable place, and to have idiots come in and be idiots, quite frankly, is not acceptable.”

Blunt remarks made by Premier John Horgan after questions were raised Thursday morning about abuse on restaurant and retail employees across the province due to the precautions and mandates both restaurants and retail stores are facing because of the pandemic.

Here locally, owner of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Trent Derrick says they aren’t immune to the abuse, stating it’s almost a daily occurrence now.

“As a business owner, we’re just trying to stay open, and we’re trying to keep our staff healthy and we’re trying to keep customers happy,” explained Derrick. “We’re regulated. We’re regulated by the municipal government, we’re regulated provincially, the health authority, WorkSafe BC. We’re a franchise so our franchise has its own rules in place as well. It’s kind of unfair to take it out on our staff or take it out on us. We’re just trying to do our job, and we’re trying to do our job well.”

As is the case with many businesses, Rocky Mountain has a cap on the maximum number of customers allowed inside their store at any given time, as well as urging customers to pay electronically rather than with cash.

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According to the Bank of Canada, it’s entirely up to businesses to determine what forms of payment they will accept for transactions. There’s no law written that would require anyone to accept bills or change, or any other form of payment, for a commercial transaction.

“There is nothing we can do. We don’t want to be fined by WorkSafe BC. We don’t want to be shut down by the health authority. Most importantly, we want to make sure our staff and the general public is safe.”

Horgan stated Thursday morning that he’s extremely disappointed in British Columbians that are engaging in this particular behaviour.

“We all have to up our game. We have to be kinder to each other. We have to behave with other people as we would want them to behave with us, and it’s not acceptable to abuse people when you’re going out to have a meal; when you’re going out to do anything quite frankly. There’s a whole host of stories that are emerging about bad behaviour during this pandemic. Unfortunately, they overshadow the extraordinary stories of kindness that are emerging from every part of British Columbia as well.”

Horgan ended his response stating he’d rather hear about the positive stories that have stemmed from an otherwise unfortunate situation in the pandemic than people’s ignorant behaviour.

by Ethan Ready

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Local business owner states employees subjected to abuse daily

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