Toronto businessman faces new wage theft claims, still owes $290K in wages years after conviction
Former employees, workers’ organization call for harsher penalties for wage theft
A Toronto businessman continues to face new claims of wage theft and government orders to pay employees in the years since he and a few of his companies were charged for not complying with Ontario Ministry of Labour orders to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages in 2019.
Anchuan Jiang and one of his companies pleaded guilty to some of those charges under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) in 2021 and were fined a combined $100,000 in provincial court.
Despite this conviction, a CBC Toronto investigation found Jiang still owes at least $290,000 in unpaid wages, has received 18 more orders to pay wages against one of his private schools totalling nearly $184,000, and is facing at least two more claims for unpaid wages since December 2023 from former employees of another private school he owns.
In an email statement, Jiang said he and his companies are working toward paying most of the wages owed by the end of this year.
'The system has to change'
Former employees and a workers' rights organization say Jiang's case highlights how Ontario's ESA enforcement system is failing workers and why harsher penalties for employers are needed in order to deter and prevent some of them from repeatedly breaking the law.
"The system has to change," said Cordel Browne, who filed a claim in January for a month of unpaid wages from Jiang's private school, Ontario College.
"When you think of people having problems with their mortgage payments or maybe child-care payments or student loans — the ripple effects can be really, really damaging."
Browne, was a teacher at the school from late November 2023 to the beginning of January. That's when he says the landlord of the office building where the school is located gave him a letter for Jiang showing the school owed more than $100,000 in unpaid rent.
When he mentioned the debt to Jiang in an email, Jiang fired Browne in his response.
CBC Toronto has reviewed photos of the landlord's letter and emails between Browne and Jiang. It's unclear whether the rent has since been paid.
Browne says he is owed $5,800, but doesn't expect to see it.
"I'd much rather the people who are out several months get their wages," he said.
"He needs to be held accountable for what he's done."
Jiang 'committed to timely wage processing'
In a statement, Jiang told CBC Toronto that Ontario College and his other private schools "diligently" process monthly wages for current and laid-off teachers and staff in line with their employment agreements.
"Despite encountering a few cases of labour disputes related to fulfilling contractual obligations by certain staff and teachers, we are committed to timely wage processing," he said.
When it comes to Browne, Jiang said his pay is delayed because Browne hasn't submitted his monthly time-sheet, teaching materials, assessment work and insisted on being paid in cash.
Browne says he couldn't provide the teaching materials and assessments because the computer they were on was removed from his classroom. He also said he provided his hours, and asked Jiang for cash because the landlord's letter said that some rent cheques had bounced.
Unclear exactly how much workers are owed
CBC Toronto previously reported on Jiang, and his companies' issues paying employees in 2018, and again in 2019 when he was charged under the ESA for failing to comply with orders to pay.
After hearing from recent employees about ongoing wage issues, CBC Toronto contacted both Ontario's Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Finance to determine whether the province had collected the $321,401 in outstanding wages from the unpaid 2017 orders mentioned in a news release about Jiang's 2021 conviction.
Despite disclosing that balance in a news release, neither ministry would confirm how much, if any, of those wages remain unpaid.
The Ministry of Finance handles collections of orders to pay wages on behalf of the Ministry of Labour if they're not paid within 30 days. A spokesperson for the finance ministry said it "makes every effort" to recover what's owed but "cannot discuss specific cases or say anything that may breach confidential taxpayer information."
Public records obtained by CBC Toronto, however, offer some insight into the ministry's recovery efforts.
There are 10 active writs of execution against Jiang dating back to 2019, and one against one of his companies, totalling more than $290,000. The writs were all registered by the finance ministry on behalf of the labour ministry's director of employment standards.
Writs can be used to enforce debts by having a sheriff seize and sell a debtors assets to pay off what they owe. While it doesn't appear the finance ministry has tried to seize and sell Jiang's fully-detached Toronto home, it has placed a lien of more than $115,000 on the house, according to property records.
Jiang sold 4 condos to pay wages
To pay the wages, Jiang said he's already sold his other real-estate properties (he previously owned four condos in Toronto), and expects to pay the rest of what is owed to former employees of his shuttered media company by the end of this year.
Jiang and Norstar Times were convicted under the ESA and fined $100,000 for failing to pay orders for those wages in 2021. Toronto court services confirmed the fines remain unpaid. Jiang said he and his company "are committed to following the payment plan established" to pay the fines by 2025.
One of Jiang's four registered private schools, Ontario International College, received 18 orders to pay wages totalling nearly $184,000 since he was charged under the ESA in 2019, according to data from the labour ministry. The orders were issued between the fall of 2019 and the end of 2021.
Jiang blames the financial impact of COVID-19 and not being eligible for federal pandemic subsidies (because his business' rent exceeded $50,000 a month) for those unpaid wages.
"Efforts have been made to pay off the wages owed to a dozen staff and teachers," Jiang said.
"We anticipate fully resolving this issue by the fall of 2024."
More deterrence needed, worker group says
Timelines like those can leave employees waiting years to receive unpaid wages and allow an employer to run their business "predicated on wage theft," said Deena Ladd, executive director of the Workers' Action Centre in Toronto.
"The biggest issue here is a lack of deterrence to employers."
Ladd explains it's very common for workers to contact her non-profit for help enforcing an order to pay wages an employer is ignoring.
"There's more consequences for me if I don't pay my parking tickets than there are for employers who are not paying their workers their wages," she said.
In Ontario, if someone doesn't pay their parking tickets, they can't renew their driver's licence. Ladd argues a similar approach should be taken with employers who don't pay workers.
"You can stop an employer from being able to get a mortgage, from being able to get a driver's licence, a liquor licence, any of the licences that businesses need to operate," she said.
CBC Toronto asked the Ministry of Labour if it has plans to strengthen ESA enforcement and whether any changes might include denying a business owner various licences.
In a statement, the ministry didn't address those questions.
Instead, spokesperson Anu Dhar said the ministry "takes the enforcement of employment standards very seriously and uses every avenue available to pursue the recovery of assessed amounts to ensure that workers have what they are owed."
Dhar also said the ministry has recovered more than $100 million in wages and other money owed to workers over the last five years. The statement did not say how much of the overall wages and other money owed to workers that $100 million accounted for.
Ex-employee had to fight to get paid
Anastasia Makharadze was shocked when she learned about Jiang's history of not paying employees while dealing with her own problems getting paid. She worked as an ESL instructor at Ontario College from August through November last year.
"It's astonishing because the point is the authorities are aware of this," she said. "It's really unbelievable that he is still able to run his business."
A newcomer from Ukraine, Makharadze said she had to fight to get paid each month before she left the private school — and still hasn't received wages for her last month of work.
"I would never even think that it is possible not to pay your employees in the 21st Century in Canada," Makharadze said.
She submitted a claim to the Ministry of Labour, but isn't holding her breath. She says Jiang "wasn't very concerned about it because he knows nothing will happen."
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With files from CBC Reference Library