Shanti
Well-known member
Hello ladies. I'm in an icky situation right now and would appreciate help or your thoughts on what you would do if you were in this position. I know the answer seems kind of obvious, but since I've never been in this situation I want to take all possibilities into account first.
To start things off, I'm Canadian and live in Ontario, so for any of you Canadian/Ontarian ladies, it would be an advantage.
I worked at this retail store, Harnn + Thann, for 2 weeks. I got hired on the spot and there was no contract to be signed or whatever--he didn't even ask for my social insurance number. I thought it was weird and for a moment pondered on whether it was under the table or not, but kind of dismissed it since I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Oops. All I knew is that he said he tries to pay his employees over minimum wage ($10.25/hr) and that the pay cycle was bi-weekly.
Anyway, during the time I worked there, business was always very dead and quiet. My boss had a chill attitude about things, telling me not to stress out and just relax because there wasn't anything to do unless customers were in the store. I worked accordingly.
That being said, my boss also had a bad temper and cussed a lot. I thought he was kind of cuckoo but again, dismissed it.
So I worked there for 5 shifts until I got another job offer for a full-time position. I told the assistant manager, who was in charge of scheduling, and she told me to take the other job. That being said, she didn't want me to come in for my remaining shifts. She told me that the boss will call me shortly about getting my pay for the work I did.
3 weeks later, not a word. I called and he said he'd send me the cheque.
Another 2 weeks passed, not a word. I called again and he said "Shit, I forgot. Is this your number? I'll call you back. I'll send you your paycheck."
Another week passed, and no paycheck. I called again saying "It's been a week." He told me to come pick it up the next day and it'd be there.
I texted him to remind him, in case he'd "forget".
"I'll be there by noon. See you tomorrow with the paycheck."
So I came in today and picked it up. Surely enough, on that cheque was less than half of what I was supposed to receive. Before taxes he owed me $245 for the hours I worked. He gave me a $100 cheque. WTF?
Now, I know this isn't like, thousands of dollars or anything, but $100 would not cut it for the hours I did. I worked for about 24 hours. $100? What a joke.
I stood there in a store, waiting to discuss it with him. I gave him a look of "this is not right..." and he started yelling at me. (I'll omit the exclamation points since I'm sure you get the idea anyway.) I couldn't talk over him, let alone try to utter anything. Also, do assume that every 5th word was a F word.
"You're lucky I even paid you. You've been chasing me for the past 6 weeks for nothing. You didn't do SHIT while working here. You just stood around like a lazy ass, not doing any work. You didn't sell anything. You've been here for 2 weeks; after 2 days you should've been selling. You're nothing like the other girls that work here, like her [points to employee]."
So I was like "I came in and worked and did my hours and this isn't even the minimum!"
He proceeded to corner me out of the store, complaining about the text message I sent him and so forth.
"You think you deserve more than that $100? You know what, just take it and get the fuck out or give it back to me."
I told him that this wasn't right, so he made a threat.
"You're gonna try to do something about it? Try it. Nothing is gonna happen. Go and try getting help or whatever. If you fuck around with me, I'm gonna burn you to hell. So leave me the fuck alone and don't ever message me again."
He slammed the door.
I just stood out there for a moment in disbelief.
I guess the obvious thing to do it go to the labour board or whatever. But can I?
+ He didn't log in all my hours that I worked. I remember the hours I worked, but I don't remember exactly which days I worked.
+ He never took my social insurance number (or any other personal info) upon hiring me.
I wonder if the whole time I was going to be paid under the table. It's a friggin chain retail store (there's only 1 in North America, the other stores are across Asia and Europe) for fuck's sakes.
Anyway, since he kicked me out of the store, I still have that cheque but I didn't cash it out.
So basically I'm upset that:
1. He tried to avoid paying me
2. He ended up paying me less than my earnings
3. He threatened me.
At the moment, I'm waiting for my mentor to come back from the States so he can talk to my PSYCHO ex-boss into paying me what I deserve, since I don't want to worsen things by going to the labour board (if I can even do that).
But since my PSYCHO ex-boss also threatened me ("burn you in hell", wtf), I wonder if I can do anything about that.
What would you do in this position?
Thanks in advance and sorry I couldn't condense it without leaving details! Much love.
To start things off, I'm Canadian and live in Ontario, so for any of you Canadian/Ontarian ladies, it would be an advantage.
I worked at this retail store, Harnn + Thann, for 2 weeks. I got hired on the spot and there was no contract to be signed or whatever--he didn't even ask for my social insurance number. I thought it was weird and for a moment pondered on whether it was under the table or not, but kind of dismissed it since I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Oops. All I knew is that he said he tries to pay his employees over minimum wage ($10.25/hr) and that the pay cycle was bi-weekly.
Anyway, during the time I worked there, business was always very dead and quiet. My boss had a chill attitude about things, telling me not to stress out and just relax because there wasn't anything to do unless customers were in the store. I worked accordingly.
That being said, my boss also had a bad temper and cussed a lot. I thought he was kind of cuckoo but again, dismissed it.
So I worked there for 5 shifts until I got another job offer for a full-time position. I told the assistant manager, who was in charge of scheduling, and she told me to take the other job. That being said, she didn't want me to come in for my remaining shifts. She told me that the boss will call me shortly about getting my pay for the work I did.
3 weeks later, not a word. I called and he said he'd send me the cheque.
Another 2 weeks passed, not a word. I called again and he said "Shit, I forgot. Is this your number? I'll call you back. I'll send you your paycheck."
Another week passed, and no paycheck. I called again saying "It's been a week." He told me to come pick it up the next day and it'd be there.
I texted him to remind him, in case he'd "forget".
"I'll be there by noon. See you tomorrow with the paycheck."
So I came in today and picked it up. Surely enough, on that cheque was less than half of what I was supposed to receive. Before taxes he owed me $245 for the hours I worked. He gave me a $100 cheque. WTF?
Now, I know this isn't like, thousands of dollars or anything, but $100 would not cut it for the hours I did. I worked for about 24 hours. $100? What a joke.
I stood there in a store, waiting to discuss it with him. I gave him a look of "this is not right..." and he started yelling at me. (I'll omit the exclamation points since I'm sure you get the idea anyway.) I couldn't talk over him, let alone try to utter anything. Also, do assume that every 5th word was a F word.
"You're lucky I even paid you. You've been chasing me for the past 6 weeks for nothing. You didn't do SHIT while working here. You just stood around like a lazy ass, not doing any work. You didn't sell anything. You've been here for 2 weeks; after 2 days you should've been selling. You're nothing like the other girls that work here, like her [points to employee]."
So I was like "I came in and worked and did my hours and this isn't even the minimum!"
He proceeded to corner me out of the store, complaining about the text message I sent him and so forth.
"You think you deserve more than that $100? You know what, just take it and get the fuck out or give it back to me."
I told him that this wasn't right, so he made a threat.
"You're gonna try to do something about it? Try it. Nothing is gonna happen. Go and try getting help or whatever. If you fuck around with me, I'm gonna burn you to hell. So leave me the fuck alone and don't ever message me again."
He slammed the door.
I just stood out there for a moment in disbelief.
I guess the obvious thing to do it go to the labour board or whatever. But can I?
+ He didn't log in all my hours that I worked. I remember the hours I worked, but I don't remember exactly which days I worked.
+ He never took my social insurance number (or any other personal info) upon hiring me.
I wonder if the whole time I was going to be paid under the table. It's a friggin chain retail store (there's only 1 in North America, the other stores are across Asia and Europe) for fuck's sakes.
Anyway, since he kicked me out of the store, I still have that cheque but I didn't cash it out.
So basically I'm upset that:
1. He tried to avoid paying me
2. He ended up paying me less than my earnings
3. He threatened me.
At the moment, I'm waiting for my mentor to come back from the States so he can talk to my PSYCHO ex-boss into paying me what I deserve, since I don't want to worsen things by going to the labour board (if I can even do that).
But since my PSYCHO ex-boss also threatened me ("burn you in hell", wtf), I wonder if I can do anything about that.
What would you do in this position?
Thanks in advance and sorry I couldn't condense it without leaving details! Much love.
What an awful man. In Australia we have a government dept called "Dept of Industrial Relations" who would be the place to go to for employment disputes such as this - do you have a similar thing in Canada?
