Province considers listing employers who owe money

REGINA — The Government of Saskatchewan is considering whether to follow the province of Alberta’s approach in launching a website to name and shame deadbeat bosses who owe workers money.

“We actually had some conversations with our counterparts in Alberta when they announced they were going to do it,” Mike Carr, Saskatchewan’s deputy minister of labour relations and workplace safety, said Monday. “It’s quite an interesting initiative in terms of trying to bring some further pressure on employers who owe wages to workers.”

Last month, Alberta’s government announced its new searchable online database listing names of about 1,700 employers who owe 3,500 Alberta workers more than $14 million in unpaid earnings. The amounts owed ranged from $15 to more than $3 million.

Alberta Human Services Minister Dave Hancock called the number “disturbing” and noted employers whose names are published on the website have had a chance to appeal and dispute the claims, but in the end, have refused to pay what was owing to the employees.

Carr noted that in Saskatchewan, “we do not post employers’ names while we’ve got a recovery effort underway to recover wages. Our rationale for that is really quite simple. We want to have the opportunity to ensure that we’ve got co-operative relationships with those employers and as we try to recover those wages. If we get to an impasse, we think there might be some real value in it.

But he added that the province hasn’t “had the opportunity to fully explore the potentials” but has “opened the door to have an ongoing dialogue with (Alberta) about how it is working.

“We’re kind of intrigued by the idea,” he said, noting it could be a beneficial addition to the existing collections process — that won’t be determined for three to six months, though, at which time recommendations could be brought forward to the minister.

“We think there’s benefit, for example, in publicizing the results of prosecutions,” Carr continued. “We think that has an impact and serves the public interest in terms of the public knowing what’s gone on within particular situations around enforcement.

“I think it’s kind of helpful in terms of recognizing the impact it might have on job seekers with respect to some (information) they might want to arm themselves with,” he added, noting the government has had “a pretty good track record in terms of recovering wages.”

Situations that would be published on a website like Alberta’s are “not that common, actually,” in Saskatchewan, Carr pointed out, estimating about 200 to 300 wage orders are issued per year, but there is “significant success” with only four or five cases annually becoming particularly egregious.