BRAMPTON: A trucking company Sondh Freight Systems Inc based in Brampton alleged to have cheated large number of immigrants from Punjab in India. The company which s under ivestigation by the fedeal government has not paid over $115000 to the drivers hored by them.
The federal Labour Program is investigating Sondh Freight Systems Inc. after receiving complaints made under Part III of the Canada Labour Code, which covers standard hours, wages, vacations, and holidays. Atleast 17 former truck drivers have submitted their complaint to the labour authorities.
The former employees mostly immigrants to Canada, are being supported by Executive Director at Labour Community Services of Peel, Navi Aujla and Toronto Paralegal Dionne Dussie. Since November 2022, 21 federal labour standards complaints seeking more than $115,000 in unpaid wages have been submitted by the pair to the federal government on behalf of the workers, seeking more than $115,000 in unpaid wages, CP24 News reported.
Aujla said four legally binding Orders to Pay have been issued to Sondh as a result of the claims she and Dussie have filed, totalling just over $28,000 – but the workers have yet to see any money back in their pockets and the company is seemingly still operating, they said.
"In the meantime, the company continues to hire new workers and repeat the same cycle," the letter reads. “They should not be allowed to continue doing this to other workers. Are seventeen claims not enough to prompt serious action?”
Sondh listingThe Labour Program’s complaint process can be lengthy, and Aujla said theirs has been extended further by Sondh's initial lack of cooperation. As she fights for the group’s restitution, she’s also calling on the federal government to examine the barriers of the system, which she says can prioritize companies over workers.
One of the former workers in an interview to a TV channel over the phone from his Windsor, Ont., home that his time working for Sondh pushed him to the financial brink – so much so, he was forced to send his family back home to India.
Since September, we were not paid properly, not on time, we had to make several phone calls every week,” he recalled, adding that, at one point in time, he was calling the company 10 to 15 times a week seeking unpaid wages.
Gaganpreet Walia is one of the four workers on whose behalf an Order to Pay has been issued to Sondh. The company is now legally required to pay him a total of $14,777.50, according to the order.
“I got the payment order [issued] in September,” Walia said in an interview. “But still, there’s nothing in my accounts.”
Walia was hired at Sondh in 2019, he said. When COVID-19 hit, Walia said his payments started to become more and more delayed. To make up for the lost income, Walia said he’s gone into more than $10,000 in credit card debt.
Aujla said the process of getting the group reimbursed is far from over. If the company fails to act on its Orders to Pay, the next step for the Labour Program is to issue the Orders to Pay to the director of the company, rather than to the company itself, she said.
“It’s only six months, whereas, you have two years to file a claim,” Aujla explained. “A lot of workers are told by employers they’ll get their payments within that time frame, and then six months pass and it's too late to file a claim.”
The bottom line, for Walia, is that the federal government needs to support its workers – and quickly. “I don’t understand why we are paying taxes to the government if they are not helping us, or are this slow to help,” he said.