JEM Workshop broadens services with mobile working options
A new service is being planned by JEM Workshop to deploy its employees offsite to clients who require work be done on their premises. JEM, one of the province’s accredited adapted companies, employs a workforce of people with diverse abilities and offers packing services for startups and companies across a range of industries. For many years these services have been offered solely from their physical workshop located in Montreal near the Town of Mount Royal. Come springtime, the plan is for JEM employees to be deployed offsite as Mobile Working Groups upon request.
JEM’s executive director, Maia Cooper, says that as an adapted company there are certain standards that must be maintained. Companies accredited under the Conseil québécois des entreprises adaptées receive funding from Quebec’s Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. (See story, same page.) These companies must submit annual reports that show how they meet wage, safety and other regulatory standards.
Cooper explained that the shift in funding from the Social Services Ministry to the Labour Ministry for companies like JEM marked a turning point in the provincial shift away from what is referred to as Sheltered Workshop Programs, described by Cooper as “the old model” and one that has historically been described by some as “exploitive.” While these programs offer employment to people with disabilities, they provide less than the legal minimum wage or do not offer vacation pay and other benefits and may not meet basic standards for workplace safety.
Adapted companies, like JEM, are held to a different standard. It is a workplace feature that is not lost on JEM employees, like Diane Moore. “People around here are nice; the staff is supportive,” Moore said. “They will tell you what to do, but they’ll also let you work in the way that works for you.”
To maintain that standard while offering Mobile Working Groups services, JEM vets the physical work locations employees are deployed to and offers sensitization training for partner companies. Cooper says that if they’re sending JEM employees off-site, the company needs to make sure their partners’ sites meet the standards as well.
Cooper said that while JEM offers business solutions to companies that want quality and affordable packaging services or labour to achieve their own business needs, they never waver from their social mission, which is to employ and train a diverse workforce.
