Canada’s Chief Justice is going to head UN Human Right Commission but what about human rights in her own home country. There is one article published in today’s Toronto Star, it is kind of eye opener for those who think that in Canada right of Minorities are well protected. Just a quote from that article :

“I can understand it in
a Third World country,
but this is Canada.'”
Shashikant Lad, who is now unemployed
and trying to collect owed wages

Read the following article, it is bit long but worth reading:

When hard work leads to no pay

Needy employees denied back wages

`Deadbeat' bosses prey on vulnerable


PETER GORRIE
FEATURE WRITER

Rasiya's two kids came home from school for lunch during the interview.

He struggled not to cry in front of them.

But tears came anyway. He quickly removed his glasses and wiped them away on his sleeve.

Rasiya, who asked that his last name not be published, is frustrated, angry and scared.

He worked for two companies that owe him a total of more than $15,000.

It's a lot of money for a man who can't find a new job and is struggling with his wife to hang on to their small apartment in a run-down Scarborough highrise.

Under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, the labour ministry — which agrees he should be paid — is supposed to collect the debts on his behalf.

But Rasiya — who came to Canada three years ago as a refugee from his native Sri Lanka — hasn't received a penny.

He is among thousands of Ontario workers every year — usually low-paid and recent immigrants — who don't get the wages, overtime, vacation, severance and other payments they've worked hard to earn.

Whether companies go bankrupt or simply ignore orders to pay their workers, the ministry and a private collection agency it has hired are, most of the time, unable to get the money.

The province has promised to crack down on "deadbeat parents" who don't pay child support. It should do the same with "deadbeat bosses," critics say.

The current system "is a gift to employers, a message that they don't need to pay," says Tracy Heffernan, a lawyer with Kensington Bellwoods Community Legal Services. "It's an enormous problem." The debt has climbed by $75 million over the past four years, according to reports from the ministry's Employment Practices Branch. The ministry says it can't calculate the total amount, but workers' advocates estimate at least $300 million is owed to about 60,000 workers.

About three-quarters of the 15,000 claims filed with the ministry's Employment Standards Branch each year are resolved with little fuss, because the employers co-operate.

The rest of the time, when workers really need help, the collection system fails them. It looks great on paper. The ministry and its collection agency have strong enforcement powers to use against recalcitrant employers. But they rarely use them.

And they immediately abandon claims when employers go bankrupt, even though the Employment Standards Act authorizes them to investigate if it appears a company has gone under as a strategy to "defeat the intent or purpose" of the law.

The ministry's collection statistics are "abysmal" says Karen Dick, of the Workers' Information Centre, funded by the city and province to provide information and support for people facing a variety of workplace problems. "When employees say they'll file a claim, employers say `go ahead,' since it won't be enforced."


Here's how the system now works.

If a claim isn't settled, and the branch agrees it's valid, it allows 30 days for the employer to pay or for either side to appeal the order. Neither usually happens.

If the money doesn't arrive, and no one appeals, the case is sent to Collectcorp Inc., which has an exclusive contract with the ministry. That's where things often break down.

Collectcorp extracts just 25 per cent of the money owed by recalcitrant employers, the ministry says.

The cases cover all types of businesses, including small factories, restaurants, and door-to-door sales. The Star previously told the stories of kids who sell chocolates on the street, and people hired by subcontractors to peddle Rogers Communications Inc. cable and Internet services. Their employers haven't complied with orders to pay.

In February, 2002, Rasiya began work with Tritech Precision Machining, which produced custom parts for car makers and other large manufacturers. When it was declared bankrupt six months later, it owed him about $7,000.

Tritech management announced the bankruptcy to employees on a Friday afternoon. The following Monday, the company was reborn as TPM Machining Group.

Rasiya and a few other workers stayed on because they were told it was the only way to get the money owed by Tritech.

The business didn't skip a beat. More than the names were similar. TPM operated out of Tritech's location, 81 Mack Ave, in Scarborough, although it later moved to Etobicoke. It had the same phone number, machines and managers. TPM even retained the triangular corporate logo, simply replacing the old name with the new. The same person signed paycheques. At the end of the year, Rasiya's wages from both companies were recorded on a single income tax T4 slip.

Still, technically, the parent numbered company had gone bankrupt. Before the court-appointed trustee could step in, Tritech had made a deal with its major creditors to carry on. TPM has a different parent company, with a new head office, but at least two of the same owners and officers. Tritech president George Salmon "is involved in the new operation," the trustee stated in a report.

Before long, just like Tritech, TPM began delaying or skipping paycheques. Sometimes, the cheques bounced. Eventually, the new company owed Rasiya more than $8,100.

In April, 2003, he was laid off.

He filed a claim with the ministry. TPM officials didn't show up for a "fact-finding" meeting last spring, the ministry notes. Eventually, Employment Standards issued an order to pay. To date, nothing has happened.

A man listed as a director of TPM's parent company says it, too, went bankrupt "two or three months ago." However, government records still state the company is active, and the labour ministry "can't confirm" whether it has gone under, says spokesperson Belinda Sutton. A business referred to as Machining Group, still operates at TPM's location on Martin Grove Rd.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`I can understand it in

a Third World country,

but this is Canada.'

Shashikant Lad, who is now unemployed

and trying to collect owed wages

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Shashikant Lad, 55, also worked for Tritech, which owed him $7,500 when it went bankrupt. He also stayed with TPM, which owed him nearly $6,300 when he quit last May.

"I said, `I can't afford to work for free.'"

The ministry issued an order to TPM. When there was no response, the case went to Collectcorp.

"The government is not doing anything," Lad says. "They're not taking any action at all."

When he asks Collectcorp how his case is progressing, "they say, `is the company still in business? We phone and no one responds.' They say they've contacted the company through the Internet. They've never gone in person." When TPM moved to Etobicoke last year, he had to provide Collectcorp with the new address and phone number.

"It's a shame people get away with these things. I can understand it in a Third World country, but this is Canada. It's incredible."

Both Rasiya and Lad are teetering on the financial edge.

Both are on employment insurance, which runs out soon. Revenue Canada insisted they pay income tax on money they didn't receive.

Rasiya is caught in an additional bureaucratic Catch-22 that leaves him unable to find work as a lathe operator and denies him training that might open the door to a job.

His wife quit an accounting course to work in a fast-food restaurant. He, too, could soon be in a McJob.

Lad — who came to Canada from England in 1974 — finds no one is hiring 55-year-olds.

The father of two adult sons is spending his modest retirement savings to help to pay the mortgage on the suburban Markham house he and his wife bought in 1988, when the family's prospects seemed bright.

TPM officials, including Salmon, were informed about the nature of the story but didn't return phone calls from the Star. "I think he said he wasn't interested," said the person at Machining Group who took messages for Salmon.

Collectcorp president Nicholas Wilson at first said through an assistant that: "We know nothing about this type of collection."

Later, spokesperson Scott McIlroy said the company wouldn't comment on anything to do with collections procedures or even confirm it works for the ministry, because of confidentiality agreements.


Until the early 1990s, the ministry had a special unit to handle collections. It got money from about one-third of the companies with orders against them.

Under the NDP government, the special unit was disbanded and collections were added to the duties of employment standards officers. Collections dried up.

The NDP also created a wage-protection plan that paid workers up to $5,000 when orders weren't complied with or a company went out of business. The money came from taxpayers. Since it cost employers nothing, they were happy to tell workers to seek compensation there.

By 1997, the Conservative government had abolished the plan. By then, the province had doled out nearly $200 million.

The Conservatives also chopped 45 employment standards officers. In the past three years, 20 have been added, but they're temporary, contract positions.

So far, they haven't made much difference.

All the changes hampered collections. Worse problems began when the government handed the job to a private agency, workers' advocates say.

The contractor has little incentive to pursue deadbeat companies.

Except for large claims, the fees aren't high enough to justify the time and expense involved in collections.

The agency's exclusive contract further reduces any incentive, notes an analysis of the contract written for the Employment Standards Working Group, a legal advocacy organization for workers.

Advocates say the province should re-establish the wage protection plan. But this time, they argue, employers should fund it.

"There has to be an incentive for employers to pay workers," says Dick, of the Workers' Information Centre. "Now, the system is completely broken down."

The protection plan is "really important," says Sonia Singh, of Toronto Organizing for Fair Employment. "Cases like Tritech and TPM are not isolated. ...Workers shouldn't be penalized for a system that isn't working."

Ontario Labour Minister Chris Bentley is considering the idea. He wouldn't be interviewed, but "it continues to be under review," says his spokesperson, Peter Fitzpatrick.

The ministry would still need to more aggressively pursue the debtors, advocates say. Most important, it should set a few examples.

"If the ministry made it clear they were going to enforce the rules, and pressure employers violating orders to pay, I think that would have amazing results," Heffernan says.

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

Canada - the land of oppurtunities

doesnt it sounds like

100 mein 99 baiman phir bhi mera bharat mahan

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Sucess is not an accident it is a result of hardwork with intelligence.

Quote:

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Orginally posted by biomed

Canada’s Chief Justice is going to head UN Human Right Commission but what about human rights in her own home country. There is one article published in today’s Toronto Star, it is kind of eye opener for those who think that in Canada right of Minorities are well protected. Just a quote from that article :

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Well this may be your point of view... if one person is not getting paid for his hard work...this practice is considered as "BONDED LABOUR" thru out the world. I don't know what would you call it but it is a clear case of violation of humar right of people involved.

Thanks and regards.
Biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

I agree with you that the rights of the persons involved were violated big time. Your opening statement(from the original post) suggested that it was a case of discrimination against minorities. In some cases this may mean the same thing but, I dont think, it's true in this case.

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Quote:

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Orginally posted by jake3d

I agree with you that the rights of the persons involved were violated big time. Your opening statement(from the original post) suggested that it was a case of discrimination against minorities.

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

Quote:

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Orginally posted by biomed

If read this article again you will see that the author is talking about immigrant workers only.

Thanks and regards.
Biomed

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