tagged w/ youth works
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Mistreated B.C. tree-planters still unpaid, lawyer says
By Laura Kane, Vancouver Sun July 20, 2011
http://www.vancouversun.com/Mistreated+tree+planters+still+unpaid+lawyer+says/5132276/story.html
Surrey-based Khaira Enterprises Ltd.'s "Golden Brushing" re-forestation crew last summer near Golden, B.C. A year after the Khaira camp was shut down for squalid employment conditions, tree-planters at the camp still have not been paid -- despite a decision that ordered their employers to compensate them for over $200,000 in unpaid wages, their lawyer says.
Surrey-based Khaira Enterprises Ltd.'s "Golden Brushing" re-forestation crew last summer near Golden, B.C. A year after the Khaira camp was shut down for squalid employment conditions, tree-planters at the camp still have not been paid -- despite a decision that ordered their employers to compensate them for over $200,000 in unpaid wages, their lawyer says.
Photograph by: Website image, Vancouver Sun
A year after the Khaira camp in Golden, B.C., was shut down for squalid employment conditions, tree-planters at the camp still have not been paid -- despite a decision that ordered their employers to compensate them for over $200,000 in unpaid wages, their lawyer says.
Tree-planters, primarily of African origin, lived and worked at the camp under deplorable conditions, and were not paid full wages, according to an investigation by the B.C. Federation of Labour.
The Employment Standards Branch ordered Khaira Enterprises Ltd., a Surrey forestry company who ran the tree-planting camp, to pay $236,800.52 in unpaid wages to the workers in February 2011.
The settlement was upheld in a June 28 appeal decision, but workers have still not seen a cent of payment, says lawyer Ros Salvador of the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
Salvador said that she recently acquired internal documents that show the Ministry of Forests awarded Khaira the contract to operate the camp in 2010 without doing appropriate background checks. They also ignored warning from the Western Silvicultural Contractors' Association that Khaira could not complete the contract at the amount they had bid, she said.
The documents also show the ministry was aware of the deplorable conditions and non-payment of wages as early as March 2010 and refused to take any effective action, she said.
"All the government cared about was getting the trees planted and paying as little as possible," said Salvador in a news release.
"Under the low-bid policy, government saves money through the exploitation of workers. We think the Ministry of Forests should pay the full amount of the workers' wages."
The workers have also not been able to receive Employment Insurance because the federal government has not corrected Khaira's false records of employment, she said.
Salvador said that an Employment Standards Branch determination revealing workers' full hours of employment and earnings still has not been referred to the Canada Revenue Agency.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Mistreated+tree+planters+still+unpaid+lawyer+says/5132276/story.html#ixzz1VhCZxJ4rMistreated B.C. tree-planters still unpaid, lawyer says
By Laura Kane,... more
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