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A mechanic from India who alleged he was forced to pay $25,000 to secure a job at a Richmond, B.C., truck repair company has been awarded more than $115,000 in wages, penalties, and interest by the British Columbia Employment Standards Tribunal. The ruling, reported by CBC News, marks the end of a years-long dispute between Harminder Singh and his former employer, A J Boyal Truck Repair Ltd.

In a detailed 70-page determination, Shannon Corregan, a delegate of the director of Employment Standards, laid out how Singh arrived in Canada on a visitor visa in March 2018, with hopes of building a future in the country. After expressing interest in staying, Singh was connected by his cousin to Sarvpreet Boyal, the sole director of A J Boyal Truck Repair Ltd. The company, which had recently obtained approval to hire foreign workers under a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), offered Singh a position as a truck mechanic.

Singh accepted the job and, after briefly returning to India, re-entered Canada with a work permit in July 2018. He remained at the company until October 2019. But behind that seemingly ordinary work arrangement lay allegations of exploitation. Singh told the tribunal he was required to pay Boyal $25,000 to secure the position — a sum he paid in two parts: $10,000 in cash and $15,000 by cheque, the latter funneled through his cousin and made out to one of Boyal's friends. The practice directly violates British Columbia's Employment Standards Act, which prohibits employers from requesting or accepting payment from a job seeker in exchange for employment.

Throughout the proceedings, Corregan found Singh's testimony to be more reliable than that of Boyal and his legal representative, Pir Indar Paul Singh Sahota. According to CBC News, the ruling sharply criticized Boyal’s conduct during the hearings, with Corregan describing his and Sahota’s behavior as “obstructive,” “unprofessional,” and “inconsistent.” In one particularly scathing section, Corregan wrote, “Mr. Boyal’s testimony was contradictory on key issues. He changed his evidence when faced with the negative implications of his claims. Some of his claims were prima facie unbelievable. Some of his claims contradicted A J Boyal's own documentary evidence.” She concluded plainly: “I find that Mr. Boyal was not a credible witness. Where his testimony conflicts with Mr. Singh's, I prefer Mr. Singh's testimony.”

Singh's complaint extended beyond the illegal job fee, encompassing unpaid wages, overtime, vacation pay, and statutory holiday pay. Both Singh and Boyal accused each other of falsifying work records, prompting the tribunal to seek the expertise of a document analyst, introduced by Singh's lawyer, Jonathon Braun of the Migrant Workers Centre. The expert testified that a key piece of evidence — a so-called “register” where employees allegedly signed their daily hours — was manipulated. The expert concluded that Singh’s signatures in the notebook were forged and that all entries appeared to have been written by a single individual.

When asked for comment by CBC News, Boyal did not respond before publication.

The tribunal ultimately ruled that Singh was owed $115,574.69. While Corregan accepted that Singh had paid $25,000 for his job, only $15,000 of that amount was recoverable under the tribunal’s mandate because the initial $10,000 cash payment fell outside the statutory recovery period.

The financial breakdown awarded to Singh included $24,032.13 in unpaid wages, $44,256.24 for overtime, $2,505.76 for statutory holiday pay, $4,585.38 in vacation pay, $2,300.42 in compensation for length of service, and $15,000 for the illegal job fee, along with accrued interest of $22,894.76. Additionally, A J Boyal Truck Repair Ltd. was penalized $4,000 for eight separate breaches of the Employment Standards Act.

Singh’s case was initially decided in 2023, when the Employment Standards Tribunal ordered the company to pay him a much smaller sum of $3,149.39 in unpaid wages and $2,000 in penalties. Singh appealed, and the matter was sent back for further investigation, ultimately leading to this revised and substantially larger award.