Reinstatement breach lands BC director with personal bill for wages and penalty
A British Columbia company director is personally liable for two months of unpaid wages plus interest and a $500 administrative penalty after an employee was fired instead of being returned from maternity and parental leave. The Employment Standards Tribunal has dismissed his appeal of the personal liability finding.
The April 30, 2026, decision by Employment Standards Tribunal Member Jeremy Bryant dismissed Pedro Guillermo Guillen's appeal in Pedro Guillermo Guillen (P&J Solutions Inc.). A Delegate of the Director of Employment Standards had held Guillen, a director of P&J Solutions Inc., personally liable under sections 96 and 98(2) of the Employment Standards Act for two months of unpaid wages owed to former employee Martha Lucia Tovar Castillo, plus a $500 administrative penalty.
A layoff that became a firing after end of parental leave
Castillo was first put on temporary layoff and then formally terminated. She received what the Determination describes as a "Notice of transition from Temporary Layoff to Permanent Layoff," dated April 15, 2024, advising her that her employment was ending. The Delegate found this happened when she should have been brought back from maternity and parental leave under section 54(3) of the Employment Standards Act.
The same day she received the notice, Castillo emailed Guillen directly to object. She told him "it's crucial to address the apparent contradictions between the existence of my position within the company and the decision to terminate my employment." Guillen replied the same day and again on April 17, 2024.
A BC Registry Services search confirmed Guillen was a director of P&J at all material times, including when Castillo was laid off and terminated. He had also fully participated in the investigation, the Delegate noted, providing information on behalf of the employer.
Director liability under the BC ESA
Section 96 of the BC Employment Standards Act makes a person who was a director or officer when wages were earned personally liable for up to two months of unpaid wages per employee. Section 98(2) extends that exposure: a director or officer who authorizes, permits or acquiesces in a contravention is personally liable to pay the resulting penalty.
Bryant noted that the arguments available on a section 96 appeal are narrow. They are limited to whether the person was a director when the wages were earned or should have been paid, whether the liability falls within statutory limits, and whether any defence under section 96(2) applies. Guillen relied on none of those statutory defenses.
Quoting the Delegate's reasons, the Tribunal recorded that "Mr. Guillen made the decision to first temporarily lay off, and then later to terminate the employment of the Complainant when she should have been returned to work from her parental leave." That tied him directly to the $500 administrative penalty.
Appeal goes nowhere
Guillen, represented by counsel Kate Jenkins, appealed on all three statutory grounds: error of law, breach of natural justice, and new evidence. Bryant found none of the grounds succeeded. His submissions, the Tribunal observed, were substantially the same as those P&J filed in a related corporate appeal, which was also dismissed in P&J Solutions Inc., 2026 BCEST 43.
Bryant concluded that "In the absence of any arguable error within the statutory framework governing director liability under the ESA, the appeal has no reasonable prospect of success within the meaning of section 114(1)(f)." The Determination dated August 6, 2025 was confirmed, along with any interest accrued under section 88 of the Act.
The decision confirms that personal liability under sections 96 and 98(2) of the Employment Standards Act can attach to a director or officer who authorizes a termination that the Director of Employment Standards finds breaches the reinstatement obligation in section 54(3). The statutory defenses in section 96(2) were not raised in Guillen's appeal.
See Pedro Guillermo Guillen (P&J Solutions Inc.), 2026 BCEST 45
