Suing an Employer?

vociferous said:
So the situation

I have money enough to not need to work. i work to stay busy . so i didn't pay enough attention to my pay cheques. the business is a small (3 employees. the owner/boss, shopkeep, and tech/me). i've been there since end of april.

turns out i've been shorted almost $4000 going back to late april. i was paid 5 times (those cheques did clear) since i started (late april).
she has bounced the last couple cheques, or they have not been otherwise valid. i have not been paid at all since mid. aug
i never received pay stubs. other employees never received T4's or pay stubs going back several years.
i doubt that my deductions were paid (it was deducted from the cheques). i never received vacation pay.
i had my "ducks in a row", hours worked, wages paid/bounced, evidence etc in a spreadsheet.

i've told my boss/owner that i need to get paid up. she told me friday. i told her i wanted post-dated cheques. she refused. i asked for collateral. she got violent. she threw books, product, tools, etc at me, tore stuff off the walls and more. she was about to hit me, but caught herself.

her **** buddy stopped by with her lunch (he lives close). he was able to get her to go to her office and calm down a bit. i wanted some sign of good faith that i would be paid. in the end he gave me $1000 (good faith via email deposit) to leave and to come back on friday when she'll have the money. when the transfer was made the memo siad it was in trust of future payment. it was not a settlement

i plan on returning the $1000 when i get fully paid, not deducting it from the outstanding pay.

the business is almost dead. bills aren't getting paid, suppliers have been stiffed, utilities have been shut off (except hydro). i would be surprised if it saw christmas. i almost expect her to just bankrupt the place to stiff me.

i think i've also been fired as a result of the scene. does this affect EI?

i plan on filing a ESA complaint. not sure when. need to be paid first.

what else do i do?
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trying-to-remember.gif


You didn't pay attention to your paycheque? :lmao:

Im out, not worth the infractions/banning that this thread will lead to...
 
Paul1000RR said:
You didn't pay attention to your paycheque? :lmao:

Im out, not worth the infractions/banning that this thread will lead to...
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FYI, op has head injury.
 
Paul1000RR said:
trying-to-remember.gif


You didn't pay attention to your paycheque? :lmao:

Im out, not worth the infractions/banning that this thread will lead to...
Click to expand...

Why doesn't Marky Mark have eyebrows as ice cube?

Sent from my tablet using my paws
 
inreb said:
FYI, op has head injury.
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yup.
i am physically disabled, plus have a TBI. confrontation triggers problems for me. so does stress. i'd rather ignore a problem than face it.

i've only been there since spring, so not t4 issues for me.

suing hasn't been the goal. i know its impractical

my main question is has anyone used the employment standards act to pursue an issue against an employer?

the employer is now trying to get the other employees to sign a contract saying that any conversation ever had with me is inadmissible in court.


also, does anyone know how to repair an mov file? i was recording (legal in ONT) her screaming, but i ran ut of space on the iphone. there is a 14xmb video file that i cannot open or play
 
Don't worry about others signing those contracts. The company will almost certainly make the same mistakes that almost all employers make with contracts... And they will not be enforceable... as most employment contracts aren't.
Phone the MOL and explain your issues...
 
Doesn't sound too different from what I went through, some years back, when an employer was slowly going bankrupt. Taxes weren't being paid. Suppliers weren't being paid. Deposits were being taken, up front, for product not yet delivered. Everyone got burned.

... except me.

Give the Employment Standards Branch of the Ministry of Labour a call. They can advise you and may even have information that you don't, about your employer. I got lucky and had a Pitbull for a case worker. He went after the president/owner of the company, personally, for assets that would normally have been protected by incorporation.

http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/
 
Just filed an ESA claim.

Yes Rob. sounds exactly like our business, except we have an immensely profitable equipment rentals department.
 
Downside of the MOL is that they have a $10K max claim. Anything below that is of course fair game and they do most/all of the work for you.
 
vociferous said:
the employer is now trying to get the other employees to sign a contract saying that any conversation ever had with me is inadmissible in court.
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Priceless.

Let her go ahead and do that. Let the other employees go ahead and sign and date it. Take the employees aside (I'm sure you will not have difficulty doing this) and document the fact that they signed that other document under duress (they were "forced" to sign it).

Contracts signed under duress are easily dismissed as null and void. I had that happen at a previous employer who got me to sign (and date) an employment contract about 6 months after starting work there, under threat of not receiving incentive payments unless I signed. Years later, on obtaining legal advice concerning my departure from the firm, that was the first thing the employment lawyer looked at, and he told me right then and there that the whole thing was null and void. There were some, ahem, "interesting" developments a couple of years later, but it appears that the previous employer backed off after they obtained the correct legal advice (as opposed to using their own creative interpretation). There were a multitude of other reasons why said contract was breached, outside of the dates ...

Besides ... It is not up to her to decide what evidence is admissible and what is not! In fact, trying to cover something up is usually the best way to ensure that the lawyers become really, really interested in it.
 
vociferous said:
Just filed an ESA claim.

Yes Rob. sounds exactly like our business, except we have an immensely profitable equipment rentals department.
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Though it might be profitable because they aren't remitting taxes.

In the case of my former employer they asked me to do things that my moral compass simply wouldn't let me do. At one point the operations manager was taking parts out of product that had been returned for service, so that he could complete new orders. At the time I was doing Special Inspections for CSA certification purposes and was told after I had gone home for the day the same person simply slapped stickers on product without performing the required testing. If I'd had any concrete proof, rather than just third hand rumours, I'd have reported them.
 
vociferous said:
my main question is has anyone used the employment standards act to pursue an issue against an employer?
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FWIW I knew a plumber who was told by the general contractor that he was on salary and OT didn't count. In reality he was an employee and needed the work so he kept working and keeping records. When the project finished he successfully went after the OT.
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