I work in landscape construction and do snow clearing in the winter. In my industry, you’re paid a higher hourly rate in the winter due to the night shifts, and being constantly on call. My boss signed a contract with me in October, agreeing to pay me $2 an hour more for all winter work from December to March.
My first winter paycheque was wrong. He had allocated 20 hours to “construction” and paid me at my lower summer rate. There is no construction in the winter. When I asked him about this he said “yeah… I don’t really want to honour that contract.” Frustration grew from here, as with every paycheque he had deducted a portion of my earnings. To be clear, this wasn’t a huge amount of money. But on top of this he has been demanding endless work from his employees, intentionally taking on too many contracts and refusing to hire to make up for it. I frequently worked all day, came home for a bit, and then worked all night. He was constantly unkind, and seemed to intentionally make sure no one had any time off. He would always find a task for you to do on your down time; he hated anyone being at home.
We had multiple conversations about this pay and I was frustrated and expressed that I needed to be paid what I agreed to. He took this as a lack of gratitude, and a couple of weeks later fired me. This was strange because he paid me two weeks severance. But stated that it was because of my performance, which was completely made up. I have never received any warning and have always done good work for him.
He submitted my ROE as dismissed with cause which could prevent me from getting EI. They have heard my case and it’s under review. He also owed me about $2000 in benefits that had been pending in my benefits spending account. My login for the benefits company has been revoked and I assume that he has no intention to pay. I have not been back paid for the missing wages. However, I had been at this employer for just less than a year so he overpaid in severance.
Should I pursue any action against this employer? Should I let it lie? I live in Ontario