Already posted on r/legaladvice but figured it would be good to post here too.
Okay so this is what's happening:
I recently left my job at a small local establishment (around March 22nd) For some context, i am in Canada, we use Slack as our main way to communicate with each other at this company, and Slack is the only way I can directly contact the owner because I do not have his phone number or anything.
For my first pay day (march 18th) the direct deposit wasn't going through so i messaged the owner on Slack and he just e-transfered me. Cool, no problem, I got paid what I was supposed to the day i was supposed to.
Fast forward to March 24th the owner messaged me on Slack saying that the March 18th pay was going to be direct deposited into my bank account either on the 24th or 25th and to please send it back since I already got it via etransfer. I didn't see the message until the 26th, but when I saw it I checked my bank account and saw no change in my balance so I didnt think to check my transactions or anything. I told the owner I had not received the deposit, but that I would keep an eye on my balance in case anything does come through. He never replied so I assumed he got things sorted out.
April 1st comes around, I'm supposed to be getting my final pay, but when I check my account I see that the deposit did not go through. I send the owner a message over Slack(I was still on the company Slack) and ask if there was another error of some kind. He tells me that the money that was resent on the 24th is in my account and that I will not be getting my final pay until I return it. I tell him that I had been checking my account and had not received the money. He tells me he will check what's going on with wagepoint as they had been debited for that amount. Fair enough. Right after i receive that message I log into my online banking and go through my transactions. My transactions say that on March 24th the money was deposited and automatically sent back the same day, which explains why I never saw a change in my bank balance. After noticing this I sent the owner a screenshot and explain to him what happened, in hopes that would speed things up on his end. He did not reply at all and has not since.
I decided that I would give him until the 7th or 8th to reply before messaging him again as this is a busy time of month for the company and I also didn't want to come across like I'm harassing him as it appears this is just a banking error. On April 5th (or maybe 4th) I was removed from the company Slack, leaving me with no direct way to contact the owner, who is also the only person who has anything to do with payroll.
It is now April 7th and I have not heard anything and have not had my final pay sent to me. Just wondering what my options are as tomorrow it will be a week since last hearing from him and it's starting to feel like I'm not going to get paid. I also should have cash tips waiting for me too, but already given up hope that I'll be getting those.
I think that is all the relevant info you guys need, but feel free to ask any questions that might help give you more clarity on the situation! Also any suggestions on what I should/can do are appreciated, tyia!