Waiting for a paycheque — years later
Workers who are owed funds say Labour Ministry is failing them
It was December 2012 and desperation was beginning to creep into Chelsea Phelan-Tran’s politely worded emails.
“I have three months of bills with interest piling up,” the expectant mother wrote her former boss. “It also doesn’t help that Christmas is around the corner and taking every extra penny I have.”
Phelan-Tran ended the message with a smiley face, sending her best wishes to the woman who owed her $3,500 in wages. She never heard back.
Two-and-a-half years later, she is still waiting, even after the Ministry of Labour ruled she was legally owed the money. But the ministry still hasn’t managed to collect it and appears to be no longer trying.
“It’s money that I deserve, it’s money I worked hard for,” Phelan-Tran said. “It’s heartbreaking that this how our government is treating us.”
Last year, 63 per cent of all orders-topay issued to employers by the Ministry of Labour went uncollected, according to figures requested by the Star. Critics say that indicates a weak enforcement sys- tem that lets wage-owing employers off the hook while giving up on out-of-pocket workers.
“Because it happens so often, some of the workers will tell me they’re just not going to bother to file a claim next time,” said lawyer Avvy Go of the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. “They have so little faith in the system. They see the government as failing them.”
That is how Phelan-Tran sees it. In June 2012, she landed her dream job at book publisher McArthur & Company.
That firm was run by award-winning entrepreneur Kim McArthur. Phelan-Tran, who owed $38,000 in student loans, was thrilled.
But by September, she was no longer being paid. For two months she worked for nothing, hoping things would turn around at the increasingly beleaguered business.
But loyalty didn’t pay the bills. She says she and her husband went $10,000 into debt that fall trying to stay afloat on one income, even as they were expecting their first child. “We were at rock bottom,” she said. Phelan-Tran felt she had no other option than to approach the ministry. But rather than resolve the issue, that sparked a further round of waiting and worrying.
According to ministry documents, McArthur “could not be located,” and it took until Aug. 22, 2013, to hold a fact-finding meeting on PhelanTran’s file. McArthur did not attend.
By that time, the publishing company had closed. But the ministry ruled that Phelan-Tran was still owed $3,500 and issued an order for McArthur to pay. The matter was sent to a private collection agency, and for a year, Phelan-Tran heard nothing.
Losing patience, she called the agency herself. The collection agent said she, too, had failed to locate the employer, at which point PhelanTran provided McArthur’s phone number and home address herself.
“She was like, ’Oh, you have that?’ ” Phelan-Tran recalled.
Last month, having received no update, she called the ministry and was told the collection agency had been unsuccessful. The file had been returned to the ministry. Although there are no time limits on collections and employers remain liable for unpaid wages, files returned from the collection agency are essentially dead in the water.
“If new information on the employer/director comes to the Ministry of Labour’s attention, the file may be sent back to the collector to pursue collections,” said a statement to the Star.
It is not clear what “new informa- tion” is needed to galvanize the process. The ministry does not appear to have deployed any of the collection tools at its disposal, including filing a copy of the order to pay in court and seizing accounts and other assets.
Its only action has been to add a $350 fine to the uncollected wages.
The Star located McArthur’s phone number, email and home address. She did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and did not answer the door of her Brantford, Ont., house — where her 2001 Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the Year award leaned against the front window.
According to a June 2014 Facebook post, McArthur has a new publishing outfit called McArthur McKim. Meanwhile, Phelan-Tran and her husband are delaying a second baby while they rebalance their finances.
The ordeal has left the 31-year-old Ajax mother shocked at the lack of support from those meant to work on her behalf.
“She broke the law,” said PhelanTran. “She could just do it again and get away with it.”