Nat Bailey and Aramark Fire Dozens of Newly Hired Employees
Photo Credit: Vancouver Canadians/Twitter via Daily Hive
After a successful season working for Aramark catering at Nat Bailey Stadium last year, Kae Lin Whiton (10) was guaranteed to be re-hired for another summer. She went to the job fair on Feb. 25, and was, as expected, immediately given her position in retail back. She was scheduled for shifts, in contact with a new manager, and on track to spending her summer enjoying the Nat’s game-day atmosphere while working alongside her friends. However, on Apr. 13, almost three months after she was re-hired, Whiton was fired due to a new age-restriction policy from Aramark catering.
Whiton explained that right from the start, something seemed off about her second year at the Nat.
“When I was rehired, I was told I would get some shifts, but after about three weeks, I had only worked three times, which was unusual,” she voiced. “Then my new manager stopped responding to my emails, and then sent me the email saying she could not have me working there anymore.”
She received an email from her direct supervisor, with an attached message from Aramark’s general manager, Matthew Kittle. Kittle’s email explained that employees under 16 were no longer allowed to work for the company, even though 14 and 15 year olds had been employed the previous summer. Kittle blamed a “glitch and programming error” for allowing Whiton to “slip through without being noticed” until the human resources department at Aramark’s head office emailed Nat Bailey.
“There was a brief mention of age when I was signing up online,” revealed Whiton. “When I put in my birthday, it said you had to be over 16, and I told my manager that, but she emailed me back saying she would just bypass my age.”
Kittle’s email ended with a promise to Whiton and other newly fired employees that once they turned 16, they should “get in touch and we will 100% direct hire you and have you back on schedule working side by side with us again.”
“I found out I had been fired at school, and when I got home I just cried,” Whiton shared. “I had such a good time last summer, and finding out I wasn’t going to work there this year and make any money was disappointing.”
Remaining workers at the Nat sympathized with those who lost the summer job opportunity and were let go. “This really affected a lot of people, and even those who came back after they turned 16 have just not got as many shifts as those who were hired before,” revealed Kaito Nomura (11), who was hired at the job fair and is working his first year at Nat Bailey.