TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On Saturday, November 29, workers with more than $400,000 owing in stolen wages rallied outside the Ministry of Labour to demand action on the epidemic of wage theft in Ontario.
According to the Workers' Action Centre, wage theft is more than not being paid for the hours you work. Wage theft also includes the deliberate misclassification of workers as self-employed, independent contractors, rather than employees with full rights and protections under the Employment Standards Act.
“I was purposely misled by my boss to believe I was only owed my hourly wages,” says Stephanie, a cleaner who was misclassified as “self-employed” at a previous job. “For me, this meant that I wasn't paid any overtime pay, despite working long hours. I didn't get my vacation pay or my public holiday pay, which is mandatory under the law. And when I was suddenly fired without any reason, I didn't even get termination pay, which employees are entitled to.”
“When I calculated what I was owed, I realized being misclassified meant my employer had stolen a total of $3,800.00 from me,” she said. “I fought hard and organized with the Workers' Action Centre, and finally got the money back. But it shouldn't be this hard to get paid for the work we do.”
Isaias used to work at a construction company specializing in pre-engineered buildings and insulated metal panels. “Myself and my coworkers worked big jobs with long hours. We often put in way more than 44 hours a week doing really tough, dangerous work,” he explains. “We did metal structures, warehouses, steel framing, roofing, insulation. Yet despite this work, our paycheques started coming late, and then stopped coming at all.”
“We kept working because we thought the money would come,” says Isaias. “We struggled to buy food for our families. Some of us couldn't pay rent. Imagine working so hard for so long, then not getting paid for it? We organized for more than a year, and when the Ministry of Labour finally said they got our wages back from the company that's still in operation, we were shocked to learn we only got about 7% of what we were owed. This is not right.”
“These stories of stolen wages are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Deena Ladd, Executive Director of the Workers' Action Centre. “There are so many barriers to workers filing complaints to get their wages back, that most people are forced to quit their job and accept the losses.”
According to the Workers' Action Centre, the problem is two-fold. In the first instance, the Ministry of Labour does not enforce the law proactively and when it does find employers guilty of wage theft, the government does little to recover the stolen wages or penalize guilty employers. Secondly, under the legislation, workers are expected to enforce their own rights. But without workplace protections against being fired or retaliated against, few workers file complaints. If they are finally able to do so, it is often only after they are forced to quit and after devastating losses.
“Employers are stealing workers' wages with impunity,” says Ladd. “The Ministry of Labour must have the staff necessary to conduct proactive inspections, respond to third party complaints, ensure stolen wages are recovered, and that workers are compensated for the costs and harms of lost wages. We also need much better laws to protect workers from reprisals when they stand up for their rights at work, and we need to close loopholes that allow employers to get away with wage theft in the first place.”
About the Workers' Action Centre
The Workers' Action Centre is a member-led organization of non-union workers who organize to improve employment and labour legislation and enforce workplace rights. Its recent report on the wage theft crisis is available here.
For more information please contact:
Pam Frache at 416-578-3472
