Sudbury MPP and NDP Labour Critic Jamie West is speaking out over the issue of Ontario workers being ripped off for their wages by unscrupulous employers.
West has called out the provincial Conservative government for failing to recover the wages owed to hundreds of workers going back to 2017, according to broadcast reports.
In many cases workers have won labour relations judgments against bad employers only to find that many employers disregard payment orders that have been escalated by the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Finance.
“Like Ontarians across the province, New Democrats believe in the value of hard work. We believe that includes workers getting paid for their hard work. And, if those wages are stolen, then the government should be their ally and get them their money,” said West in a news release.
“Ford’s Conservatives will brag about doubling the fines for wage theft. During Estimates, the Minister of Labour couldn’t cite a single time that the previous maximum fine had ever been enforced. The Conservatives are instead letting bad bosses get away with unlawful wage theft,” West continued.
West quoted CBC News reports indicating that workers in Ontario are owed as much as $60 million in unrecovered wages in recent years.
The broadcast reports said in many cases employers were ordered to pay wages by the Labour Relations Board, but often those orders were ignored. When the employer fails to comply with the order to pay within 30 days, the case moves to the Ministry of Finance for collection. Data showed that less than 30 per cent of the money owed was being recovered.
In the news release, West demanded the Ontario government to intervene to end wage theft and finally collect the $60 million dollars owed to Ontario's workers.