Company not paying for work done? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Jayems · 03-10-2009, 10:30 AM

I have a quick question. I worked for a company for 3 days in mid-January to pick up some extra cash. Worked out to be close to $800. So, the pay period, I'm told, was from Jan. 15 to 31 (or whenever January ended). About mid-February, I emailed the office manager I had been dealing with to see where my $$ was. She informed me the company had 1 month to pay me. That irked me a tad, but whatever. She said if you don't get it by March, call me back. Of course, I waited a week into March, still no cheque, and now she won't return my emails.

What are my options?

cKy · 03-10-2009, 10:31 AM

Well, I would burn the building down.

wooohooo · 03-10-2009, 10:33 AM

What about going to the better business bureau? I believe they deal with things like this

KevanGuy · 03-10-2009, 10:33 AM

Call Service Alberta, they will help you out. http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/

GoinAllTheWay · 03-10-2009, 10:36 AM

Emails are easy to ignore, someone showing up in person is not.

3 Justin 3 · 03-10-2009, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Emails are easy to ignore, someone showing up in person is not.

A gun doesn't help either. Or chainsaw on fire, what ever you prefer.

Ducay · 03-10-2009, 10:38 AM

Call or go in person

Jayems · 03-10-2009, 10:39 AM

Yeah, I may swing by today. My concern is that they'll just tell me some bullcrap about it being in the mail and waste more time. I guess, however, it wouldn't hurt for them to know I don't mind coming down there.

photon · 03-10-2009, 10:41 AM

Bring a bobcat.

That sucks, I had a similar situation where a cheque bounced. I finally got another cheque but I didn't cash it right away, had to call the bank every day for 3 weeks trying to certify it before I got my money.

PsYcNeT · 03-10-2009, 10:42 AM

If they don't pay you within 3 weeks of the end of pay period, they can be formally charged through the BBB is my understanding.

Gundo · 03-10-2009, 10:50 AM

If you were a contractor and you were contracted out I have no clue what the timeline for getting paid is, but if you were working at a place as an employee and quit/were fired then this applies...

Quote:

9. What is the employer’s responsibility when an employee is dismissed and notice is required?
The employee must be provided with termination notice in writing or termination pay. A combination of notice and termination pay is allowed. Payment of all wages, overtime, general holiday pay and vacation pay owing to the date of termination is due within three days.

I found it on the PDF file in the link at the bottom of this page.
http://employment.alberta.ca/cps/rde....xsl/1474.html

I have had a situation similar to yours and just printed up what I needed from the Alberta Labour Laws website and then went to the business and just handed the paper over and said its been over a week and this is what the province states so gimme my money. They said that a cheque would be mailed to me and I just told them Ill sit and wait for them to cut me a cheque and sat down. Within 15 mins I was paid. Good luck I know some people/businesses can be asses when it comes to short term employment.

Jayems · 03-10-2009, 10:54 AM

I basically got a call on a Thursday to see if I could come help out for a TV show production on the Fri, Sat, Sun. I was never a full time employee, nor was I fired/let go. It was kind of a one-time deal. They're a seemingly reputable company.

Gundo · 03-10-2009, 11:01 AM

Hmmmmm sounds like you were kinda contracted out, I would just keep on them but its easier to say sorry to a phone than someone in person. Id stop by in person.

Table 5 · 03-10-2009, 11:12 AM

I've had a client not pay me for 3 years now, and the worst thing is part of my job required me to hire someone else as well. This is a guy who left his family for his assistant though, so im guessing doing the right thing is his mantra.

Jayems · 03-10-2009, 11:31 AM

Well, I got a hold of the folks. In the process of finding out where the cheque is.

KevanGuy · 03-10-2009, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

If they don't pay you within 3 weeks of the end of pay period, they can be formally charged through the BBB is my understanding.

I am pretty sure the BBB can't formally charge anyone with anything.

Table 5 · 03-10-2009, 11:41 AM

3 weeks is nothing in terms of getting payed. I'm a pretty constant freelancer, and most companies have a 30 or 60 day policy of paying after they receive your invoice.

Dan02 · 03-10-2009, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

I am pretty sure the BBB can't formally charge anyone with anything.

and i believe it is more focused on helping consumers not employees.

Buff · 03-10-2009, 01:46 PM

I worked for a company that was going through hard times (pretty much for all 15+ years of their existence). They had five people working for them, one was on contract the rest of us were employees. There were several times when they couldn't pay us the full amount or had to pay us a week or two late. I think at one point we only received portions of our pay cheques for three months straight (but we were always eventually payed what we were owed).

Anyway, the contractor was often not paid because they didn't have to pay him right away... his work ethic was also extremely questionable and the quality of the work he did was also shoddy at times. Through evesdropping he heard the boss tell one of us that we're getting paid a portion of our pay cheque but the contractor wasn't getting anything that month so don't say anything to that feller. He did some research and confronted them to make him an employee instead of a contractor. It worked out that he was made an employee on the last day of one month and the next day he came in (before the bosses did, I should mention) and saw that there was no pay cheque on his desk so he upped and quit and took them to court and won. He was a weasle though and claimed that he worked double hours and that he was always an employee and that they just didn't do the paperwork so they wouldn't have to pay him etc. etc. His course of action screwed the rest of us over. Maybe we were pushovers but we were patient and didn't raise a huge fuss and it worked out for us in the end. I was the last to work for them as an employee, they only contracted out jobs from there on in.

They weren't shady, they just did a horrible job at managing their business and the people who worked for them, as well as themselves, suffered as a result.

Jayems · 03-10-2009, 01:49 PM

Appears to involve an issue with a staff member who left and a new one who got on and a loss of the invoice. Appears to be a simple resend of the invoice to get paid.. blah!