A hotel chain must pay more than $100,000 to three foreign workers employed at one of its locations in Manitoba after the province’s labour board denied the company’s appeal.
Western Star Inn & Suites called unreliable witnesses and failed to file documents that supported claims against the three people who worked at its Melita location, the Manitoba Labour Board said in a written decision dated Tuesday.
The ruling rejected an appeal from the hotel chain that followed seven days of hearings this summer in which the labour board heard “much concerning testimony” about how employees were treated, the decision said.
That includes long work hours, stressful working conditions and insufficient training and staffing, it said.
CBC News reported late last year that some foreign employees at the Saskatchewan-based hotel chain worked seven days a week, and up to 12 hours a day on average.
Victor Padilla Ruiz, one of the three workers named in the labour board’s decision, told CBC News previously that the hotel took advantage of him after promising to help him get legal status in Canada. He is from Mexico.
The board said witnesses testified about unfulfilled promises of work permits and safety concerns but it could only rule on Manitoba labour code violations and unpaid wages.
‘Illogical and inconsistent’ statements
It said five employees called as witnesses by Western Star tried to contradict the evidence submitted by the workers but called much of what they said unreliable.
Among other things, the board said they confirmed Padilla Ruiz was employed at Western Star despite the appellants previously claiming he did not work at the hotel and was only living there.
The decision also said statements by payroll manager Amrinder Singh Gill “were illogical and inconsistent with a properly run operation.”
Gill denied having any knowledge of the hotel’s day-to-day operations and said he’d assumed all employees had work permits, the decision said.
The board said he “took no steps and had no records” confirming staff had employment agreements or could lawfully work in Canada.
“Even the appellant admitted in final argument that the hotel was mismanaged,” the decision said.
“The manner in which … witnesses testified was also of concern to the board, as their evidence appeared scripted and rehearsed, as opposed to honest and forthcoming,” it said.
The board said Western Star also failed to call witnesses central to the case.
Irwin Brar, who represented Western Star through the proceedings, declined to comment when contacted this week.
‘I didn’t know that was not normal’
The amount owed to the workers was based on calculations from the employment standards officer who investigated the hotel in 2024, with only “minor revisions,” the decision said.
Western Star was ordered to pay Padilla Ruiz just over $86,500 based on a $23.20 hourly rate from an employment agreement.
Two other workers — Montserrat Del Toro and Rajbinder Gill Mathias — were set to receive around $23,100 and $28,300, respectively.
Gill Mathias’s owed wages were calculated based on the hourly rate in a Labour Market Impact Assessment for her to work at the Western Star in Esterhazy, Sask.
The woman, a relative of the appellants, came to Canada from India in 2022. She told CBC News she was moved to seven locations, including the Melita hotel, but never worked in Esterhazy.
Working in Manitoba was against the conditions of the closed work permit she had at the time.
“I just worked. I never calculated anything…. I didn’t know what is normal standards,” Gill Mathias said Wednesday. “I didn’t know that was not normal because, like I said, as immigrants, when we come to a foreign land, we do not know about our rights.”
Gill Mathias alleged she had been forcibly required by the company’s director to withdraw $11,500 from her bank account.
The board ordered Western Star to pay back that amount as part of the money owed based on bank records entered as evidence, though it rejected a claim for another $7,000 she said had been wrongfully withheld.
Gill Mathias said more needs to be done to keep employers in check.
“I came to Canada for money — money for my son’s education,” she said.
Gill Mathias said she hasn’t been able to see her 11-year-old for nearly four years.
“I know … other immigrants go through what I have been through,” she said. “I don’t want my son to go through all this.”
Ineligible for program
The board said Del Toro — a Mexican national who came to Canada as a visitor — was paid irregularly and sometimes in cash. She did housekeeping, laundry and front desk duties, testifying she worked at least eight hours a day, seven days a week.
The board said she was paid less than the minimum wage. The money owed was calculated based on the minimum wage in Manitoba while she worked at Western Star around 2024.
About $2,500 claimed by Del Toro for time worked for a hotel in Saskatchewan was outside the board’s jurisdiction, the decision said, adding there was a separate proceeding in that province to deal with wages earned there.
Del Toro told CBC News she’s still waiting on a decision in Saskatchewan.
She said in a text message she’s happy about the Manitoba ruling and hopes no one else has to go through what she went through.
In May, Western Star was ruled ineligible to hire temporary foreign workers under the federal program due to unpaid monetary penalties.
Immigration and Citizenship Canada’s list of employers who’ve been found non-compliant says the company failed to meet the conditions for employing a foreign worker and couldn’t show a job matching the description it gave to the government. It also broke laws for hiring and recruiting employees in the territory where a foreign national worked, the list states.
The company was fined $3,250 for those violations.
