A Kelowna contractor found to have exploited foreign workers has lost an appeal to overturn the sentence.
Everlasting Stucco and Stone Ltd. argued that the BC Employment Standards Tribunal’s decision contained errors condemning the company to pay a total of $ 93,148.10, including wages owed and fines for employees.
In 2018, Harkanwaldeep Singh, owner of Everlasting Stucco, hired three people as part of the temporary staffing program. Fateh Singh, Amarjeet Singh and Rajesh Kumar were all hired as plasterers for a period of 24 months.
According to the Tribunal, Everlasting Stucco stated that two companies were involved in the employment of the three workers, sole proprietor Harkanwaldeep Singh and the company itself. Singh allegedly fired the three employees who were then reinstated by Everlasting Stucco. As part of the new hiring, the three employees’ wages were reduced by $ 10 an hour with no overtime and no statutory vacation pay.
Everlasting Stucco said the tribunal did not distinguish between these “two entities” so it initiated the appeal.
The company also claimed employees agreed to their pay changes, but the trio said otherwise.
“The applicants said they never agreed to the changes but did not complain for fear of endangering their immigration status,” the tribunal’s report said. The tribunal also dismissed Everlasting Stucco’s allegation that two companies were involved in the employment of the three people.
“The (Tribunal) found that the applicants had an uninterrupted period of employment and … Everlasting Stucco was the registered employer during the wage restoration period.”
The three were fired from their jobs on June 13, 2019. Afterward, they filed complaints alleging that Everlasting Stucco had not paid her for all hours worked, overtime, annual vacation, and statutory vacation pay.
The company has now been ordered to pay owed wages of $ 90,648.10 and a fine of $ 2,500.
“There is simply no factual or legal basis for this plea, it has no value and is dismissed.”
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Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
dish
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