[Canada] Tribunal finds workers’ texts more credible than company payroll records

In Canada, a Nova Scotia labour tribunal has ruled a worker's day-to-day text messages to be more believable than the company's official pay stubs and payroll records as evidence in a pay dispute, HRD reports.

Nova Scotia Labour Board chair Jasmine Walsh dismissed an appeal from a Halifax-area drywall subcontractor in a September 3 decision and ordered it to pay a former drywall taper $5,241.60 in unpaid wages and vacation pay. The tribunal’s findings upheld an order that had first come from the province's Director of Labour Standards.

The worker was reportedly paid at an agreed rate of $24 an hour, and both sides accepted that his first pay period had been paid in full. The dispute began with the next pay period. The subcontractor claimed it had paid him, but the worker said he received only a pay stub and no money. After that point, the subcontractor stopped paying him entirely. The two sides dramatically disagreed about how many hours he had worked in the weeks that followed.

The subcontractor stated that the worker was still owed for around 59.5 additional hours. The worker's count found the real shortfall was closer to 196 hours, more than three times as much. 

The discrepancy led to an important question: whose record of hours worked would the board believe?

The subcontractor reportedly cited its own supervisor's daily time sheets, three pay stubs and a government Record of Employment. The worker pointed to months of WhatsApp messages he said he sent daily, logging his hours and job site as he worked.

Ms Walsh and the board found that close inspection of the subcontractor's paperwork raised serious problems. The pay stubs failed to match the supervisor's own hour counts and also did not match figures the company itself had texted to the worker at the time. Ms Walsh's board therefore concluded that the pay stubs were unreliable.

The Record of Employment reportedly listed 187 insurable hours and three pay amounts which did not line up with either the pay stubs or either side's account of hours worked. Her board also found that record unreliable.

The board preferred the worker's WhatsApp messages instead. It described them as an ongoing, dated record the subcontractor never challenged at the time. It maintained the worker's hours “were not always accurate.” However, Ms Walsh stated that she found no evidence it had ever raised that concern with him directly, and no explanation for why the two records suddenly diverged once payments stopped.

Source: HRD

(Link and quotes via original reporting)

In Canada, a Nova Scotia labour tribunal has ruled a worker's day-to-day text messages to be more believable than the company's official pay stubs and payroll records as evidence in a pay dispute, HRD reports.

Nova Scotia Labour Board chair Jasmine Walsh dismissed an appeal from a Halifax-area drywall subcontractor in a September 3 decision and ordered it to pay a former drywall taper $5,241.60 in unpaid wages and vacation pay. The tribunal’s findings upheld an order that had first come from the province's Director of Labour Standards.

The worker was reportedly paid at an agreed rate of $24 an hour, and both sides accepted that his first pay period had been paid in full. The dispute began with the next pay period. The subcontractor claimed it had paid him, but the worker said he received only a pay stub and no money. After that point, the subcontractor stopped paying him entirely. The two sides dramatically disagreed about how many hours he had worked in the weeks that followed.

The subcontractor stated that the worker was still owed for around 59.5 additional hours. The worker's count found the real shortfall was closer to 196 hours, more than three times as much. 

The discrepancy led to an important question: whose record of hours worked would the board believe?

The subcontractor reportedly cited its own supervisor's daily time sheets, three pay stubs and a government Record of Employment. The worker pointed to months of WhatsApp messages he said he sent daily, logging his hours and job site as he worked.

Ms Walsh and the board found that close inspection of the subcontractor's paperwork raised serious problems. The pay stubs failed to match the supervisor's own hour counts and also did not match figures the company itself had texted to the worker at the time. Ms Walsh's board therefore concluded that the pay stubs were unreliable.

The Record of Employment reportedly listed 187 insurable hours and three pay amounts which did not line up with either the pay stubs or either side's account of hours worked. Her board also found that record unreliable.

The board preferred the worker's WhatsApp messages instead. It described them as an ongoing, dated record the subcontractor never challenged at the time. It maintained the worker's hours “were not always accurate.” However, Ms Walsh stated that she found no evidence it had ever raised that concern with him directly, and no explanation for why the two records suddenly diverged once payments stopped.

Source: HRD

(Link and quotes via original reporting)