[Canada] Employers owe Ontario truckers over $1 million in wages

In Canada, Ontario truckers have called on the federal government to ensure better enforcement of rules around wage theft in the industry as the problem continues to grow, HRD reports.

In 2023, the Canadian government issued 542 wage payment orders against trucking companies a CBC report, citing government data, found. By July this year, there were already 491 orders.

"Employers are getting away with ignoring government orders to pay wages all of the time," Navi Aujla - president of the non-profit Labour Community Services of Peel - told CBC.

The group has reportedly taken on the cases of more than 250 truckers over the last two years. It is working with 130 truckers collectively owed over $1 million by their employers.

The report found that the trucking industry was responsible for 85 per cent of all wage-related Canada Labour Code violations between 2017-18 and 2021-22. CBC said this was despite truckers accounting for less than 20 per cent of federally regulated workers.

Tomoya Obokata - UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery - had previously stated that “the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”. The statement followed reports of violations against these workers, including wage theft,

This year the government reportedly made changes to the Canada Labour Code "to stop employers misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour said.

However, in the report, Marco Beghetto - a spokesperson for the Ontario Trucking Association - said the problem is not with the rules; it’s with non-compliance to those rules.

"Frankly, non-compliance pays," Mr Beghetto said.

"We're not talking about new laws and new regulations. All we want is the enforcement of the laws that are already on the books of the standards under the Canada Labour Code."

Source: HRD

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

In Canada, Ontario truckers have called on the federal government to ensure better enforcement of rules around wage theft in the industry as the problem continues to grow, HRD reports.

In 2023, the Canadian government issued 542 wage payment orders against trucking companies a CBC report, citing government data, found. By July this year, there were already 491 orders.

"Employers are getting away with ignoring government orders to pay wages all of the time," Navi Aujla - president of the non-profit Labour Community Services of Peel - told CBC.

The group has reportedly taken on the cases of more than 250 truckers over the last two years. It is working with 130 truckers collectively owed over $1 million by their employers.

The report found that the trucking industry was responsible for 85 per cent of all wage-related Canada Labour Code violations between 2017-18 and 2021-22. CBC said this was despite truckers accounting for less than 20 per cent of federally regulated workers.

Tomoya Obokata - UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery - had previously stated that “the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”. The statement followed reports of violations against these workers, including wage theft,

This year the government reportedly made changes to the Canada Labour Code "to stop employers misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour said.

However, in the report, Marco Beghetto - a spokesperson for the Ontario Trucking Association - said the problem is not with the rules; it’s with non-compliance to those rules.

"Frankly, non-compliance pays," Mr Beghetto said.

"We're not talking about new laws and new regulations. All we want is the enforcement of the laws that are already on the books of the standards under the Canada Labour Code."

Source: HRD

(Links and quotes via original reporting)