Abstracts
Abstract
This article explores the experiences of informal construction and home renovation workers with payment-related violations of employment standards. Such violations, often broadly referred to as ‘wage theft,’ can comprise an array of practices including, but not limited to, withholding workers’ wages for long periods of time, paying workers below the minimum wage, extracting illegal deductions from workers’ paycheques, and outright not paying the wages due.
Drawing on twenty-two in-depth interviews with foreign-born men employed informally in residential construction and home renovations in Toronto, Ontario, the first half of the article documents the specific forms of wage theft that workers experienced in these sectors where flat daily rates and piece rates are common, but written contracts are not. I also explore the individuated and extra-legal strategies that workers adopted in trying to recoup stolen wages. In general, they framed their sustained efforts to persuade employers to adhere to the law as a form of employment standards enforcement running parallel to the tactics of state enforcement.
In the second half of the article, I examine the accessibility of the more formal legal channels that exist to assist workers in recouping lost wages—specifically, claims filed through the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Through a review of recent case law on Board adjudication of employment standards complaints about wages owing to informally-employed, non-citizen workers, I highlight the document burden that informal workers in this sector must bear in order to file a robust claim with the state.
Drawing on scholarship that has shown how employment standards violations are pervasive in the more sub-contractual and informal tiers of the construction industry, I pinpoint multiple interlocking conditions in informal construction and home renovations that not only increase the likelihood of wage theft for workers in these sectors, but also disproportionately burden them with the responsibility of enforcing the law or proving their employer’s non-compliance. In so doing, I show how this group of workers shoulders the responsibilities of either the state or their employer in recouping lost wages.
Keywords:
- informal work,
- home renovations,
- employment standards violations,
- wage theft,
- informal economy
Résumé
Cet article s’intéresse aux expériences de travailleurs oeuvrant dans les secteurs informels de la construction et de la rénovation domiciliaire où de fréquentes violations des normes d’emploi liées aux salaires furent constatées. De telles violations, souvent appelées « vol de salaires », peuvent comprendre un éventail de pratiques, qui s’étendent, mais sans s’y limiter, de la retenue du salaire des travailleurs pendant de longues périodes, au paiement des travailleurs en dessous du salaire minimum, à l’extraction de retenues illégales sur les chèques de paie des travailleurs, jusqu’au non-paiement du salaire dû.
S’appuyant sur vingt-deux entrevues approfondies avec des hommes nés à l’étranger employés de manière informelle dans la construction résidentielle et la rénovation résidentielle à Toronto, en Ontario, la première partie de l’article documente les formes spécifiques de vol de salaires que les travailleurs ont subies dans ces secteurs où les tarifs journaliers et le travail à la pièce sont courants, mais où les contrats écrits sont rares. J’explore également les stratégies individualisées et extra-légales que les travailleurs ont adoptées pour tenter de récupérer les salaires volés. En général, ils ont mis des efforts soutenus afin de persuader les employeurs d’adhérer à la loi comme une forme d’application des normes du travail, parallèlement aux tactiques d’application de la loi par l’État.
Dans la seconde partie de l’article, j’examine l’accessibilité des voies juridiques plus formelles qui existent pour aider les travailleurs à recouvrer les salaires perdus, en particulier les réclamations déposées auprès de la Commission des relations de travail de l’Ontario. À travers un examen de la jurisprudence récente sur le jugement par le Conseil des plaintes relatives aux normes du travail concernant les salaires dus à des travailleurs non-citoyens employés de manière informelle, je souligne le fardeau documentaire que les travailleurs informels de ce secteur doivent supporter afin de déposer une réclamation solide auprès de l’État.
En m’appuyant sur des études scientifiques qui ont montré à quel point les violations des normes du travail sont omniprésentes dans les niveaux sous-contractuels et informels de l’industrie de la construction, je souligne les multiples conditions interdépendantes dans la construction informelle et les rénovations domiciliaires qui, non seulement, augmentent la probabilité de vol de salaires pour les travailleurs de ces secteurs, mais fait également peser sur eux, cela de manière disproportionnée, la responsabilité de faire appliquer la loi ou de prouver la non-conformité de leur employeur. Ce faisant, je montre comment ce groupe de travailleurs assume tant les responsabilités de l’État que de leurs employeurs lors de leurs démarches pour récupérer ces salaires perdus.
Mots-clés:
- travail informel,
- rénovation résidentielle,
- violations des normes du travail,
- vol de salaires,
- économie informelle
Appendices
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