A former Burnaby flower shop employee has been awarded $3,616.97 after a complaint to the province’s director of employment standards.
Katrina Zhang worked at Fleurs D’epargne in Metrotown (4923 Kingsway) from Jan. 1, 2020 until she quit on Jan. 31, 2022, according to an Employment Standards Tribunal ruling last week.
She launched a complaint last March, alleging the store had violated the Employment Standards Act by failing to pay her regular and overtime wages, statutory holiday pay and compensation for her length of service, according to the Feb. 23 ruling.
After an investigation, the province’s director of employment standards ruled the company had indeed violated the act by improperly withholding $2,116.92 in wages, $1,344.90 in holiday pay and $53.80 in vacation pay.
Because Zhang had quit, however, the director determined she wasn’t entitled to compensation for length of service.
The director also slapped the company, which is owned by Meda Holdings Ltd., with $2,000 in administrative penalties for its contraventions of the act.
The company’s owner, Eliza Au, had argued Zhang had been a manager at the store and was, therefore, not entitled to overtime and statutory holiday pay.
Au also disputed Zhang’s claims about her hours of work during her final pay period.
But the director preferred Zhang’s evidence, according to the ruling, noting Au had provided three different versions of events and submitted no evidence to corroborate her claims.
Zhang, meanwhile, provided proof in the form of text messages between her and her employer, the ruling said.
The director also ruled Zhang had not been a manager at the flower shop and was entitled to the unpaid overtime and holiday pay.
“The director found that, although the employee may have performed some management duties, her primary duties were as a sales associate,” states the ruling.
Au appealed the director’s decision to the Employment Standards Tribunal, which conducts appeals of the director’s rulings, but the tribunal dismissed the appeal.
“On a review of the record and the determination, I find no basis to interfere with the decision,” states the ruling by tribunal member Carol L. Roberts. “The employer’s appeal is, in essence, simply a disagreement with the adjudicative delegate’s findings and conclusions. The burden is on an appellant to demonstrate a basis for the tribunal to interfere with the determination. I am not persuaded that the employer has met that burden.”
Fleurs D’epargne recently closed its Metrotown store.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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