Target rolls out its recruitment campaign

U.S. retail giant Target launched the first phase of a huge recruitment campaign in British Columbia where an estimated 2,500 people across the province will be hired before stores open next spring.

And despite ongoing labour strife with unionized staff at Zellers stores in Ontario and Quebec, as well as one location in Burnaby, there has been a great interest in the number of applications, said Tiffany Monroe, Target's vice-president of human resources, in an interview in the Vancouver Sun

"We have thousands and thousands of jobs to fill," said Monroe in the article.

Monroe added that the company is focused first on finding store managers to oversee its 18 new locations in B.C.

Hiring department managers would be next, followed by retail staff positions.

Currently, the B.C. Labour Relations Board is reviewing an application made by the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union, Local 1518, which represents 120 workers at the Brentwood Mall Zellers in Burnaby, to have Target declared a successor employer to Zellers.

If found successful, the application would mean employees would get to keep their jobs–and union status–despite an ownership change.

Target is fighting the  claim by arguing its $1.83-billion deal with Zellers is strictly a realestate transaction that doesn't include the acquisition of staff.

Monroe said in the article that Target has guaranteed an interview to any Zellers staff member, but that doesn't mean he or she will get the job.

Monroe declined to say how much Target employees will earn in B.C. stores, saying in the article: "In the United States we pride ourselves on that and we don't expect that to be any different here, but we're still in the process of working through what that would look like from a total and benefits standpoint."