TFW cleaner can’t recover all lost wages
EDMONTON — Temporary foreign worker Angie Bestray saw big problems on her very first pay day. The Filipina cleaner was handed an envelope full of cash with a pink post- it note stuck on top instead of a proper pay stub.
In handwriting, her employer recorded her wage at $ 11 an hour — though $ 14 was the rate she was supposed to be paid under her federally approved contract. Bestray also worked overtime, but was paid only straight time, in violation of provincial labour standards. That was December 2011.
When Bestray expressed shock, her co- workers at Nelma’s Janitorial Services advised her not to complain. That’s just the way it is, said the workers, mostly on overnight shifts cleaning major city department stores.
For two years, Bestray said nothing. Then her new Canadian husband, Trevor Clark, tired of watching her work seven days a week without proper pay, urged her to complain to provincial labour standards.
A subsequent investigation found Bestray is owed $ 12,261 by her employer, confirmed Jay Fisher, public affairs for the department of jobs, skills, training and labour.
Alberta Labour standards investigates 250 to 300 complaints a year from temporary foreign workers. They are subject to the same employment standards as local workers. Investigating officers determine if an employee has been improperly paid and calculate money owing. Most of the time, collection is successful.
“More than $ 4.5 million was recovered in the last fiscal year” — about 75 per cent of all money owing, Fisher told Postmedia News.
The investigation into Bestray’s case was difficult because there were no pay stubs. But a labour standards officer stuck to it, contacting Nelma’s for records, using Bestray’s personal records and sign- in books where the cleaners worked.
The $ 12,261 in unpaid earnings includes $ 1,602 in unpaid wages, $ 5,940 in overtime pay, and $ 4,917 in vacation pay and statutory holiday pay. The debt was registered as a judgment with the Court of Queen’s Bench in July.
Labour standards found other troubling problems, according to the investigator’s May report, obtained by the Journal.
In December 2012, Bestray was supposed to receive a raise to $ 20 an hour. Nelma’s LMO ( labour market opinion, the document filed to apply for temporary foreign workers) was renewed by the federal government with the new wage.
But Nelma’s had not been paying the higher wage to Bestray, the officer discovered in the investigation. In spring this year, the province ordered the company to start paying the $ 20 and to issue proper pay stubs.
Three other workers have launched complaints against Nelma’s Janitorial Services, Fisher confirmed.
Nelma De Celis, owner of Nelma’s Janitorial, told Postmedia News that she can’t afford to pay due to financial difficulties. She closed her cleaning company this spring, saying she suddenly lost the big cleaning contracts. She will file for bankruptcy next week, said De Celis.
“I am more than willing to pay if I had the capacity,” said De Celis in an interview Thursday. She also owns a restaurant but she said that, too, is losing money.
De Celis added she has “made an arrangement” with a provincial collections officer to pay $ 500 to Bestray in October.
Fisher said Friday the department is not aware of any repayment plan. “This is still an active collections file,” he said.
While the money is important since she is out of a job, Bestray mostly wants to put a stop to employers who cheat workers out of their legal wages.
Bestray quit her job with Nelma’s in March. That’s after she was transferred to Spruce Grove for a night cleaning job after Nelma’s Janitorial Services discovered she had launched the complaint.
She ran into another roadblock this summer. At best, Bestray will only be able to collect about $ 1,602 of the $ 12,262.
With Nelma’s cleaning company closed, collections officers are going after De Celis personally and her partner Leonilo Eugenio. But under the provincial Labour Standards Code, company directors are only liable for basic wages owed to an employee — not overtime or vacation pay.
“It’s so frustrating. Although I have a right to complain, there’s no way to collect the money,” said Bestray.
Clark says there’s a problem with the law and it needs to be changed. “We appreciate the effort of the collection officer; she is doing a great job,” said Clark.
Bestray and Clark also want to know why Bestray had to pay the cost of her flight to Canada, as well as a $ 3,000 fee to an agency in the Philippines when both those charges are illegal under the temporary foreign workers program.