NDP to introduce legislation to protect workers from stolen wages

HALIFAX - The NDP Caucus will introduce legislation tomorrow to protect workers who have not been paid for work or are owed vacation or overtime pay. The new legislation, if passed, would require employers to prove that an employee has been paid appropriately where issues of wage theft are alleged.

“If you work, you deserve to be paid for that work,” said NDP Leader Gary Burrill. “Wages, overtime, and vacation pay are guaranteed by law, but workers find it challenging to enforce their right to be paid for the work they have done. When a workplace is unsafe, the province has the power to shut it down. When employees aren’t getting paid, the government should be able to investigate and get workers what they are owed.”

In March, workers at various Smiling Goat coffee shop locations in Halifax went to the media to highlight their employer’s failure to pay the wages they were owed. Many of these workers still have not received payment. Under the current system, it can be difficult to recover unpaid wages even when employees are successful in filing complaints with the Labour Board.

“Bosses stealing from workers is disgusting and stealing from low-wage workers is doubly so. Our former boss has still not been forced to pay for the money he owes his former workers from several months ago,” said Charlie Huntley, a former employee at the Smiling Goat. “It’s unacceptable that bosses get to act like they’re entitled to free labour from their employees with little to no consequences. We need there to be consequences for bosses. We need wage theft legislation.”

In Ontario, a Toronto Star investigation in 2017 found that there is at least $38 million in outstanding unpaid wages. In a survey conducted by the Workers Action Centre in Toronto, 33 per cent of low wage workers reported being owed wages by their employer, and 39 per cent said they did not receive appropriate overtime pay.

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