Local mechanical workers have filed a complaint with the Yukon government’s employment standards branch over an alleged pay imbalance between them and their out-of-town counterparts at the F.H. Collins Secondary School construction site.

Jeff Sloychuk, the president of the Yukon Building Trades Council, said today one worker told him he and at least one other employee were not being paid equally nor compensated for overtime, unlike employees from Outside.

Christman Plumbing and Heating is the B.C. company facing the accusations.

The Kelowna-based family business is under contract to lay pipe and ventilation at the building project underway on Lewes Boulevard.

“The B.C. guys are still getting the longer days and the workers are alleging they’re making more and also getting an allowance,” Sloychuk said.

“It’s totally bizarre.”

But Christman’s co-owner said the allegations are baseless and came out of left field, insisting the B.C. employees earn the same wages as the rest.

“They’re making the exact same thing per hour; they’re just getting a per diem because they’re working out of town ... which is standard in our field,” Rob Christman told the Star.

The two out-of-town employees work 18 days per month on a fly-in, fly-out basis, “because they have to go home and see their family,” he noted.

Christman said no one has worked overtime since the mechanical contract began several months ago.

“I don’t need them to do that yet. As it stands now, we’re ahead of schedule.

“I was kind of caught off-guard, to be honest,” he added. “None of my employees have ever approached me about any of this.”

Christman complied with a recent request by the employment standards branch for time sheets and pay stubs.

He said the company pays its plumbers above the minimum $31.13 per hour, a figure adjusted annually under the territory’s fair wage schedule.

One of the complainants works onsite as a plumber. He also serves as contract co-chief when Christman’s manager is back in B.C.

Another complainant is a local labourer, who allegedly earns less than the $22.47 per hour required, which Christman denied.

At the moment, the company has seven people contracted for the plumbing and heating job, he said. Five are local.

Both Christman and Sloychuck touched on the century-old issue of workers and companies from Outside filling local positions.

“There’s no job pool, there’s no employees. I’ve basically hired every single local person I could get,” Christman said.

“The oil patch, Fort McMurray, Fort St. John and the mining industry has taken a lot of people, a lot of skilled workers, because it’s a lot of money for them.”

Sloychuk cast the labour situation in a different light. “It’s been a nightmare from a local work perspective,” he said.

“My concern is that we have local contractors and local workers who are fully competent in doing this kind of work, but the government hasn’t been showing enough leadership on letting local companies get a chance to bid, which all goes back the original pulling of the contract at F.H.”

He stressed the loss for local apprentices in particular, who need experience to upgrade their trades qualifications.

The original cost of construction for the F.H. Collins project was pegged at between approximately $37 million and $38 million in June 2012 — bumped up to about $42 million after the government added a temporary gym and geothermal energy to the tender.

No local company came within $10 million of the original tenders. The government did not disclose the later cost upgrade.

It scrapped the plan when no companies could come close to meeting the budget demanded, ultimately opting for a pre-designed school imported from Alberta.

When a new tender was sent out in October 2013, opposition parties questioned why the government included a requirement that bidders have experience building three projects in the last five years that were “similar to the new F.H. Collins Secondary School.”

The NDP and Liberals suggested this excluded local contractors from bidding.

Premier Darrell Pasloski noted in November 2013 that the project required a $40-million bond, which local companies alone would not qualify for.

He insisted there were opportunities for local contractors to partner with companies from Outside and still benefit from the project, like Ketza Construction and EllisDon Corp. have done.

For its part, Christman is attempting to plant roots as a local business.

His family has purchased a house in Whitehorse and now runs an office out of the city.

“We see a lot of prosperity and a lot of future up there,” he said.

“We’re not a big contractor; we’re a family business.”

The employment standards branch stated that its director may issue a certificate — to be filed in Yukon Supreme Court — ordering compensation if it finds an employer owes wages to an employee.

Either party has 28 days to appeal the decision to the employment standards board.