Failed to comply with orders to pay wages issued by employment standards officer (ESO)
The Ontario International College Inc./ College International De L’Ontario Inc., and its director has been fined $410,000 for failing to pay wages to 14 workers.
Following guilty verdicts in the Provincial Offences court in Toronto, the employer was fined $270,000 while Director Anchuan Jiang was fined $140,000 .
The court also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge on the defendants, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
An investigation by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development confirmed that the employer failed to pay employees for wages owed.
Between October 2019 to October 2020, an employment standards officer issued orders for the corporation to pay the unpaid wages, totaling almost $185,000. However, the corporation did not comply, nor did it apply for a review of the orders to pay.
The officer also issued a director order to pay to Jiang, who also did not comply with the order. Nor did he apply for a review, according to the Ontario government.
Following this, the ministry took the corporation and its director to court for failing to comply with the respective order to pay wages.
Both defendants were found guilty on all counts and were fined a total of $410,000, plus the victim fine surcharge. This amount does not include the owed wages.
“Ontario International College Inc. failed to comply with orders to pay wages issued by an employment standards officer (ESO) under section 103(8) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000, which is an offence under section 132 of the Act,” said the Ontario government.
“Anchuan Jiang failed, as the corporation’s director, to comply with a director order to pay issued by an ESO under section 106 of the Act, which is an offence under section 136 of the Act.”
Section 103(8) states that every employer against whom an order is issued under this section shall comply with it according to its terms.
Meanwhile, Section 106 states that “if an employment standards officer makes an order against an employer that wages be paid, he or she may make an order to pay wages for which directors are liable under Part XX against some or all of the directors of the employer and may serve a copy of the order in accordance with section 95 on them together with a copy of the order to pay against the employer.”
One employer was previously met with punitive damages for failing to pay out an employee. Another employer was alleged to have failed to comply with the requirement to pay wages within 72 hours from termination because it issued an electronic paycard with usage fees and access restrictions as final payment of wages to terminated or resigned employees.
