Salmon Arm Circle K store fined after stiffing temporary foreign worker $18,000

A Salmon Arm convenience store is on the hook for $19,000 after it stiffed a temporary foreign worker.

According to a recently published Feb. 24 Employment Standards Tribunal decision, the Circle K in a Shell gas station, neglected to pay Anil Khurana $17,838 when he worked there.

The decision is very light on details but says Khurana wasn’t paid regular wages, overtime wages, statutory holiday pay and annual vacation pay. The company, 1378182 BC Ltd, was also fined $1,500.

However, Circle K appealed the ruling, arguing the Tribunal had made numerous mistakes.

The convenience store argued the Tribunal had “simply accepted” the former employee’s version of various events, accusing the former employee of concocting documents. Circle K said the Tribunal had ignored its “compelling evidence.” 

However, the Tribunal disagreed.

“The (Tribunal) examined the documentary records produced by both parties and she noted, tellingly, that aspects of the employer’s records suggested unreliability because they were at critical times in conflict with each other,” the decision reads. “Wage statements failed to match the hours the (employee) worked which the employer had noted in its own records.”

The employer also argued that the Tribunal should have looked at security footage, point of sales logs and Excel metadata.

However, the Tribunal ruled that Circle K had this information and it was up to it to provide evidence, which it had failed to do.

Circle K also accused the Tribunal’s decision of being “tainted with bias” but provided no evidence to back this up.

The convenience store made numerous other arguments, which fell flat at the Tribunal.

“To the extent that the submissions were repetitive, they added nothing of substance,” the Tribunal ruled.

The Tribunal shot down an argument when Circle K claimed it was denied a fair hearing and therefore shouldn’t have to pay the penalties.

“This is another aspect of the application which has no merit,” the Tribunal ruled.

Ultimately, the Tribunal dismissed all of Circle K’s arguments and ordered it to pay up.