As someone living up in Canada for the last 45 years, I can't even begin to tell you how many folks I've met along the way who were being abused by their employer and didn't know “the rules”.
I don't know about other places, but up here we have Labor Laws and Employment Standards that employers have to follow. THEY HAVE TO FOLLOW THEM.
Certain fields of occupation do bend the rules slightly to accommodate for the nature of the occupation ie. nurses & oilfield workers., but there are basic rules such as what constitutes overtime, when overtime kicks in & must be paid, wages, how long they have after termination before they MUST pay you out, rules surrounding the age of workers (children/students are not supposed to be exploited the way they were when I started working at 13), etc., etc.
And if you aren't sure, things are searchable online, there are phone numbers you can call to ask and, they will go to bat for you if an employer is breaking the law.
It's crazy how much power and authority the workers that I've met attribute to their bosses…
“What do you mean they have to pay me overtime?”
“I thought they could pay me anything they want? They're the boss, aren't they?”
“The right to refuse unsafe work? What does that mean?”
“What's hazard pay?”
“They said I wasn't allowed to take a break.”
“I've never heard of OH&S… What's that?”
“You mean our boss ISN'T allowed to lodge 7 workers to a one bdrm apartment AND keep most of our wages as rent?” << this one was a temporary foreign worker situation. White guy running a Dairy Queen exploiting a bunch of workers from India. Fucking appalling & made it into the news back in 2012 or so. Happens all the time up here in so many employment fields.
I know things are tough. I've seen employers do this to my fellow workers for as long as I've worked from young kids to old timers.
It's maddening and wildly sad.
I fucking hate the leverage those shitbirds have over people. And many don't know, so nothing gets said or done, workers are abused and wages are stolen.
My most recent fellow worker that I can think of who went through things of this nature is only 19.
We calculated that there are at least 4 restaurants in our community that owe her a few thousand dollars EACH in wages. She started waitressing at 14. Employers fired her for not being able to work more hours over the evenings and weekends, even though she was a minor + a student. She never recieved overtime when she worked over holidays or summer breaks. Recieved far less than the minimum wage for pay. Stole her tips. Didn't allow her to take breaks at any point in her shifts. And so on.
And she believed all of this to be normal. Didn't question a thing. Never got her stolen wages back. She had no clue that she could challenge any of it.
So I encourage anyone to empower themselves by researching the laws and learning your workers rights. I'd imagine that some places are harder than others to deal with if there isn't something like Employment Standards available.
But holy fuck, this shit isn't okay.
It was never okay.