Okanagan business owner blames others for $80,000 in unpaid wages

The former director of a defunct Okanagan security company has failed in her latest attempt to appeal after stiffing 10 former security guards of more than $80,000.

According to a July 23 BC Employment Standards Tribunal decision, Kalamalka Security’s director Trudi Scott argued that the former employees’ complaints about unpaid wages were “coordinated and orchestrated” as “part of a broader attempt to damage her business.”

Scott argued the claims about unpaid wages were “exaggerated or entirely fabricated” and “fraudulent misrepresentations of material facts.”

The Tribunal didn’t buy.

“I will only say that one cannot take those allegations seriously given that (Scott) has utterly failed to provide even a scintilla of cogent corroborating evidence,” the Tribunal said.

Scott’s appeal dates back to September 2024, when the Tribunal ordered Scott and her company, Kalamalka Security, to pay 10 former security guards between $21,000 and $3,000 in unpaid wages, overtime, vacation pay and compensation for length of service. She was also fined $3,000.

Details of how she ripped off her employees aren’t given in the decision, but it happened in 2022 and 2023.

In the decision, Scott argued she is not personally liable for $60,293 in unpaid wages.

BC employment law states that directors are personally liable for up to two months’ unpaid wages for each employee and the Tribunal ruled that the evidence showed she incorporated the company in 2017 and was the sole director.

The decision said Scott largely reiterated the same argument as in the first appeal, that the complaints were fraudulent.

She also argued she wasn’t given a chance to defend herself and that she didn’t know about the original investigation by the Employment Standards Branch.

However, Scott previously admitted she did get a call, and the Tribunal said she “disavowed all knowledge about the matter” when contacted.

“This is not a case where a party was denied a reasonable opportunity to participate in a complaint investigation process. Rather, the situation here is that (Scott) was afforded a reasonable opportunity to respond to the complaints and to submit their own evidence and argument but simply failed to take advantage of the opportunity afforded to them,” the Tribunal ruled.

The Tribunal pointed out that Scott’s appeal was dismissed because it was out of time, but “curiously and surprisingly,” she didn’t address that in her appeal.

Ultimately, the Tribunal dismissed her arguments leaving her personally liable for $60,000 and Kalamalka Security liable for $85,000.

The decision said Kalamalka Security shut down in October 2023, and the Canada Revenue Agency has undertaken collection proceedings.