A worker from India who claimed he had to pay $25,000 to obtain a job at a truck repair company in Richmond, B.C., where he was shorted wages, has been awarded $115,574.69 by the B.C. Employment Standards Tribunal.

The determination also calculated the money A J Boyal Truck Repair Ltd. of Richmond, B.C., was deemed to owe mechanic Harminder Singh, including statutory holiday and vacation pay he never received, along with accrued interest.

In her 70-page determination, Shannon Corregan, delegate of the director of Employment Standards, details how Singh arrived in Canada in March 2018 on a visitor visa before deciding he wanted to stay in Canada. 

Singh’s cousin put him in touch with Sarvpreet Boyal, the sole director of A J Boyal Truck Repair Ltd. The company had a job opening for a mechanic and had recently obtained a Labour Market Impact Assessment, which allowed it to hire four temporary foreign workers as truck and transport mechanics. 

Singh signed an employment contract with Boyal and then returned to India for a month. On his return to Canada, he obtained a work permit at the border and started working at the company in July 2018. He left the job in October 2019.

Singh alleged he was required to pay Boyal $25,000 to secure his employment. The first instalment of $10,000 was paid in cash, he claims. The remaining $15,000 was provided through cheques written by Singh’s cousin and made out to one of Boyal’s friends.

The Employment Standards Act states that a person must not request, charge or receive, directly or indirectly, payment for employment from a person seeking employment.

Employer not credible, judge says

In ruling in Singh’s favour, Corregan found that both Boyal and his lawyer, Pir Indar Paul Singh Sahota, were not credible in their submissions, describing their evidence and conduct in various parts of the ruling as “obstructive”, “unprofessional”, and “inconsistent.”

“Mr. Boyal’s testimony was contradictory on key issues. He changed his evidence when faced with the negative implications of his claims. Some of his claims were prima facie unbelievable. Some of his claims contradicted A J Boyal’s own documentary evidence,” states the determination.

“I find that Mr. Boyal was not a credible witness. Where his testimony conflicts with Mr. Singh’s, I prefer Mr. Singh’s testimony,” she said.

Conflicting evidence about the number of days and hours Singh worked during his employment was presented during proceedings, with both sides accusing the other of falsifying records. 

Corregan ultimately sided with Singh’s account, after a documents expert brought by his counsel, Jonathon Braun, legal director at the Migrant Workers Centre, found Boyal’s records to be suspect. 

At issue was a spiral notebook or “register,” Boyal claimed, where employees recorded and signed off on their daily hours.

However, the expert concluded that Singh’s signatures in the register were “not genuine” and that all entries “were written by a single person, not multiple people.”

CBC News reached out to Boyal for comment but did not hear back by time of publication.

In calculating what was owed, the determination granted Singh just $15,000 of the $25,000 he paid to get the job.

Corregan said she could not include the $10,000 cash because that payment fell outside the recovery period considered by the tribunal.

The settlement breaks down as follows: 

• Wages – $24,032.13.
• Overtime – $44,256.24.
• Statutory holiday pay – $2,505.76. 
• Annual vacation pay – $4,585.38.
• Length of service compensation – $2,300.42.
• Charge for obtaining employment – $15,000.
• Accrued interest – $22,894.76

A J Boyal Truck Repair was also assessed mandatory administrative penalties totalling $4,000 for eight separate contraventions of the Employment Standards Act. 

Singh’s complaints were originally adjudicated by the Employment Standards Tribunal in 2023. At that time, the company was ordered to pay him $3,149.39 in wages and $2,000 in administrative penalties. 

However, Singh successfully appealed the decision in 2024, and it was sent back for a second investigation.