Advocates in the trucking industry and some Ontario legal aid services say they’re not surprised by a survey that suggests wage theft, failing to pay overtime and misclassifying employees as independent contractors are still rampant issues plaguing truckers.
The survey results are contained in a report put together by Labour Community Services of Peel in Brampton and the Parkdale Legal Clinic in Toronto, alongside the West Coast Trucking Association and Justice for Truck Drivers.
“From the calls [we’ve received] we knew this, but the numbers are quite shocking in terms of how many drivers face wage theft. It's quite devastating in terms of how it impacts their lives,” said Navi Aujla, the service director for Labour Community Services of Peel, which offers free employment law support to its community.
The grievances outlined in the report are longstanding in the industry, with various groups including truckers themselves warning of wage theft and other issues for several years.
Aujla said her team has fielded more than 300 calls from truckers in the past two years, many seeking help for issues like wage theft and other labour violations. The results of the survey, she said, confirm what she and others already knew.
The report claims roughly 74 per cent of the 400 drivers surveyed reported wage theft, often coming in the form of drivers not being paid for time spent waiting at border crossings, and loading and unloading freight.
When they are paid they’re sometimes...
A former Connecticut nurse has been charged with submitting thousands of false Medicaid claims for medication she did not give to patients, federal prosecutors said Friday. Florida resident Mariso...