Case Description

I was required by the owner to work against my rights under the Employment Standards Act.

I was publically berrated for being late for my shift when I was not supplied a schedule with an arrival time. I had been transporting another staff member to another location which was required by the job - therefore I do believe I was working. Being disrespected and spoken to in a degrading and insulting tone infront of customers and a fellow employee is not appropriate and I requested it stop several times before I quit.

I feel my rights that were violated were: The requirement to work many shifts without breaks as described in the Employment Standards Act - there were some shifts at times over 10 hours long; breaks being taken sporadically but having to do so while still working; not being paid for time required to travel for work resulting in many hours of unpaid wages and unaccumulated vacation time; being scheduled to work on many occasions without the required rest period (11 hours as stated in the ESA) off between days of work.

Taking all this into consideration I performed my work as defined under my unwritten job description at times taking on more work and volunteering to take on additional shifts on my days off to help the office run smoothly and effeciently.

The emotional stress that final day was incredible. I suffer from BiPolar disorder and spending an inordinate amount of time in hockey arena, as we were working an out of town tournament photoshoot, with the constant noise and crowds of people is very difficult. I need my entitled time off and away from work to regain emotional control. I brought this point to the boss\' attention on the second day of our 3 day tournment shoot. I was made to feel inadequate and verbally embarssed when the boss flicked her hand and said \'fine, whatever\' infront of coworkers when requesting a break to have my dinner and time away from work. I was then further chastised the following morning with the statement that I should of been more prepared to spend the day working without the ability to leave for breaks. The boss stated felt she was \'babysitting\' because I wanted to leave for my meal break and didn\'t bring food to eat while working. Then further argued publically that my personal vehicle should of been made available for work purposes despite my concerns for safety of others driving my car in a blizzard.

It was a very difficult choice for me to quit, I loved my job and everyone I worked with. I could no longer take the verbal chastising or be taken advantage of regarding unpaid wages or working very long hours. I therefore felt I had no other choice than to quit.

In April of 2009 I brought it to the owners attention that they were not paying us correctly and after a review of 6 months of timecards I was owed over 15 hours of pay. I`m afraid the timecards have not been read correctly again. I know I haven`t been paid for any travel with respects to work. I also am aware of 3 mistakes with respect to the amount of my paycheque in the past 6 weeks (3 pay periods) alone. I`m also aware of hours being missed on coworkers paycheques as well. I will be filing with the Labour board