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In November 2004, the Manitoba Labour Board ruled that making employees work overtime without compensation is against the law, even for supervisors. The ruling upholds a decision from the province's employment standards division.

Sharon Michalowski and her lawyer expect close to $10,000 in compensation for the overtime hours. She will also be paid a month's wages because she was fired without pay after she submitted her resignation.

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Nygard loses appeal - CBC

Nov 2004 - Employers must pay overtime.

Unfortunately, there are no provisions for Peter Nygard to do any time in jail. He tried to get away with paying his employee nothing for overtime and dismissed her without pay when she finally gave notice after "she found the constant evening and weekend workload unbearable". This, from a "pillar of the community". That's capitalism for ya.

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Representatives at Nygard declined to comment Thursday. But in a written statement, the company said it was "extremely disappointed" with the decision and will consider an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The company also called on the provincial government to change labour laws to make it easier to draft contracts that both sides can agree on, while taking into account the need for employees to work more than 40 hours a week.

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Worse one yet, my wife worked for an small electronics/instrumentation company. All was well when she was in training, but when it was done things change. Her paycheque came in and it was tiny. The owner told her that although she put in 8 hrs/day, she would only get paid for hours that were billable to the client. We took it Alberta Labour, but the only other girl in the office changed her statement (presumably under threat for firing).

Companies like this really underscore the need for union representation.

[ 31 October 2006: Message edited by: Alberta Guy ]

After I finished my apprenticeship, he tried to hire me as a pharmacist, saying he never saw anybody learn how to use the pharmacy software system faster than me (!).

Now watch the government try to change the law to make it OK.

The question is how much of a real victory is this for working people in the real world? Will bosses across the spectrum clean up their act?

Not likely. That's the problem with simply relying on legislation to protect workers' rights. It's usually not properly enforced, based on a public complaint system that people are often afraid to use because of boss retaliation, and it's often hard to prove a violation. Plus courts are slow and expensive, putting workers at a clear disadvantage.