Unions representing airport security screeners say turnover for new employees is high despite efforts to hire more workers, with as few as one in three recent hires still on the job in some regions.
Major delays and flight cancellations at airports across Canada earlier this year drew scrutiny from passengers and politicians alike. Among other measures to ease the chaos, the government promised to ramp up hiring of security screeners -- and did so, with more than 2,000 new screeners hired since April.
Security screeners at Canadian airports work for third-party contractors hired by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority . There are three main contractors providing screeners at airports across Canada: Allied Universal, Securitas and GardaWorld. Lipton said inflation has made current wages for security screening less attractive, making it harder to retain workers.
"Our pre-board screeners are highly monitored in a stressful environment and this causes new workers to not want to do the job," said Aiken in an emailed statement. That means some new recruits are performing non-screening functions in the queues to optimize staffing. She also said CATSA has added more trainers.
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