Heartless

A buddy of mine emigrated to Canada from the Congo a few years back. His last few years in Africa were spent hiding in the jungle from the militia that murdered his parents and living in a refugee camp in Kenya. To say that his life has been difficult would be an understatement.

For the last year or so, my friend has been working as a cleaner at a restaurant that is part of a very large fast food chain. This job is not the most high paying job in the world, but when you have no Canadian work experience it isn't easy to get a job here.

He estimates that the number of paychecks that weren't short hours he had worked could be counted on one hand. They would always be apologetic for the "oversight" but the promised pay that he was owed would never materialize.

Despite being treated so badly, he continued to go to work and do the best job possible. He did so well in fact, that he was enlisted to train the new cleaning staff that were hired on a regular basis. The bad working conditions meant that turnover was very high. The only constant there was my friend.

Recently, however, he had decided that the time to find a new job had come. He was tired of being shorted on his pay. Who could blame him for that? Despite what he had experienced at this job, he gave them a full two weeks notice because he felt that was his obligation. Once again, he was asked to train the new staff. In this case, his replacement.

His boss promised him that he would be paid time and a half for the training that he would do. This meant he would be paid his hourly wage plus a bonus of half his hourly wage for every hour that he worked. For him this was great news, he has a grandmother, two brothers, and three sisters that he is helping to support. He trained his replacement, put in his two weeks, and worked his new job during the day.

When the time came for him to be paid, his boss told him that he would no longer be able to pay him the time and a half he had been promised. He also told him that he wanted to pay my friend in cash instead of the usual direct deposit into his bank account. The manager asked my friend to go in so that they could calculate the hours he worked and pay him out.

There is no need for his hours to be calculated. He clocked in and out via a punch card system. The hours he had worked were in black and white. My advice to him was to not attend this meeting and to ask to be paid by direct deposit as he had normally been. I also thought that it might be a good idea to let his former employer know that if they wouldn't pay him the agreed amount he would take his grievance to the labor board.

How can people be so heartless? How is this person able to sleep at night knowing that he is taking advantage of my friend and who knows how many other people? I am so pissed off about this. Frankly, if I was bigger and tougher the temptation would be there for me to go and take a piece out of this guy. I know though, that is the wrong way for me to handle this. God may not have made me a big guy but He made me smart and eloquent. If this clown doesn't cough up the money he owes my friend I will be helping him file a grievance with the labor board and doing anything else I can to bring the actions of this business to light.

Considering what my friend has been through, it is the least I can do.