{"id":9369,"date":"2025-10-23T16:34:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9369"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:34:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:34:19","slug":"lax-labour-laws-blamed-as-laid-off-liverpool-call-centre-workers-await-back-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/10\/23\/lax-labour-laws-blamed-as-laid-off-liverpool-call-centre-workers-await-back-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Lax labour laws blamed as laid-off Liverpool call centre workers await back pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5031\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5031\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5031\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Global-Empire-call-centre-cubicles-Apr-4-22-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"office cubicles\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Global-Empire-call-centre-cubicles-Apr-4-22-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Global-Empire-call-centre-cubicles-Apr-4-22-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Global-Empire-call-centre-cubicles-Apr-4-22-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Global-Empire-call-centre-cubicles-Apr-4-22-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Global-Empire-call-centre-cubicles-Apr-4-22.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cubicles at Global Empire Corporation&#8217;s call centre in Liverpool. File photo: Ed Halverson<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sixty-nine people who used to work for Global Empire Corporation at its Liverpool call centre still haven\u2019t been paid severance after being laid off last March.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/05\/09\/laid-off-liverpool-call-centre-employees-due-200000-in-back-pay-labour-officials-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an order from Nova Scotia\u2019s Labour Standards Division<\/a> that Global Empire must pay the laid-off workers a total of $193,115.04.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After a 14-month investigation, the province ruled in May that the company failed to give proper notice of the layoff under Nova Scotia\u2019s Labour Standards Code and that the non-unionized workers were entitled to just over five weeks of severance. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/66179-DECISION-Order-To-Pay_combined.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the Labour Standards decision here<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It closed its operation in Liverpool shortly after the May 1 ruling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Debra Lalonde was one of those who lost her job. An official with the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration told her recently that they were unable to collect the severance because Global Empire has no funds or assets in Nova Scotia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCome on. Really?&#8221; Lalonde says. &#8220;How about start protecting employee rights in Nova Scotia so that people living paycheque to paycheque feel protected by the government whose duty is to protect the non-unionized workers that are at risk for abuse from a predatory employer?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company says its head office is in Edmonton, so the department asked the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to register the ruling as a judgment of the court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They then sent that judgement to officials in Alberta to enforce the order on Nova Scotia\u2019s behalf.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Company owner Moe Nashman, however, claims that the company\u2019s assets are in Phoenix, Arizona. So Labour officials say that there are no funds or assets in Nova Scotia or Alberta to collect on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cNo government wants to take accountability when they can\u2019t honour their own legislation, and that\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d Lalonde said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lalonde says she and other former employees feel abandoned by the province and the Region of Queens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liverpool was the company\u2019s only Canadian location, employing as many as 120 people. It signed a five-year lease with the Region of Queens in December 2021 to move into the municipally owned Business Development Centre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9370\" style=\"width: 986px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9370\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9370\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-2.52.05-PM-976x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"976\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-2.52.05-PM-976x1024.png 976w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-2.52.05-PM-1024x1074.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-2.52.05-PM-768x805.png 768w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-2.52.05-PM.png 1355w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 976px) 100vw, 976px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9370\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Facebook post from the Region of Queens celebrating its lease with Global Empire Corporation.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/02\/14\/global-empire-call-centre-wants-to-renegotiate-lease-with-queens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">region agreed to renegotiate the lease<\/a> in February 2024, two weeks before the company issued layoff notices. The lease has never been made public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In late May of this year, a few weeks after the labour board ruling, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/05\/13\/queens-adds-human-resources-manager-to-foster-uplifting-work-environment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">municipality hired Global Empire\u2019s<\/a> former human resources manager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After Lalonde told two NDP MLAs about the issue at this year\u2019s Labour Day event in Liverpool, Labour critic Paul Wozney raised it in the Nova Scotia legislature with Labour, Skills and Immigration Minister Nolan Young.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cRecent labour board cases involving workers at Global Empire Corporation &#8230; show that our Labour Standards Code is outdated and makes it hard for workers to collect wages they&#8217;ve rightfully earned,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If this government is acting quickly to help businesses, why is it ignoring workers unprotected from predatory employers?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Young responded: &#8220;Well, I can&#8217;t speak about specifics here on the floor for any specific case, we are working hard. We are. Look, we are working hard for workers. \u2029We are out there. We are doing things. Um, yeah, leave it there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wozney replied: \u201cI guess governmenting is hard. \u2029The fact is, our current legislation means workers are getting robbed. Despite the labour board ruling in their favour, dozens of people are out thousands of dollars in wages, due to legislation that&#8217;s been unchanged for five years under this government&#8217;s watch. &#8230; Workers need protection from wage theft, and their calls have gone ignored. \u2029When will this government update one of the weakest Labour Standards Code in the country to ensure workers actually get paid for the work that they&#8217;ve done?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lalonde says she\u2019s disappointed that Queens MLA Kim Masland didn\u2019t advocate harder for the employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI have reached out to Minister Masland asking what are our next steps? You know, the government failed in protecting our rights. I haven&#8217;t heard back from Minister Masland if there are any any further steps to be taken for the 69 of us to be compensated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Masland told QCCR recently that she is \u201ccertainly concerned for those employees.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThose were earnings and they should be paid. My understanding is that this numbered company which is in a foreign land has gone bankrupt. So I\u2019m not really sure how that is going to be retrieved, but do they deserve to be paid? Absolutely. And the company should have stepped up and paid those employees. But they left in the middle of the night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She said the government\u2019s hands are tied.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYou can\u2019t expect the province to pay out every business that goes bankrupt and doesn\u2019t pay its employees. That was a private business, it\u2019s not a government entity, there were no government funds that went into that project, so the business has to step up and find the ability to pay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMy heart breaks for those folks. &#8230; We encourage growth, we encourage business to come to our communities. Sadly a government can&#8217;t tell a private business how to run their business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lalonde said Masland\u2019s comments are \u201ctypical and disappointing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cActually that\u2019s the first I have heard from her. &#8230; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think it\u2019s right on par with the government\u2019s lack of accountability for workers&#8217; rights protection.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She says that former employees are resigned to never being paid. Most workers were making little more than minimum wage, so they can\u2019t afford to hire a lawyer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lalonde says she\u2019s owed about $2,800. She\u2019s contacted Nova Scotia\u2019s ombudsman\u2019s office to see if they can help. But she says the workers have little recourse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMy next job is just to make sure that I don\u2019t let this go without it being noted that our government did not protect our workers&#8217; rights and unfortunately do not want to take any accountability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Email: <a href=\"mailto:rickconradqccr@gmail.com\">rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-9369-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/callcentrefolooct2325.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/callcentrefolooct2325.mp3\">https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/callcentrefolooct2325.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sixty-nine people who used to work for Global Empire Corporation at its Liverpool call centre still haven\u2019t been paid severance after being laid off last March. That\u2019s despite an order from Nova Scotia\u2019s Labour Standards Division that Global Empire must pay the laid-off workers a total of $193,115.04.\u00a0 After a 14-month investigation, the province ruled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[3082,670,3520,3086,2846,669,31,3085,3084,3518,3087,1214,39,3081,2847,294,3519,49,24,3521],"class_list":["post-9369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-business-development-centre","tag-call-centre","tag-debra-lalonde","tag-department-of-labour-skills-and-immigration","tag-employees","tag-global-empire-corporation","tag-kim-masland","tag-labour-standards","tag-labour-standards-code","tag-labour-standards-division","tag-layoffs","tag-lease","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-call-centre","tag-nolan-young","tag-nova-scotia-government","tag-paul-wozney","tag-queens-county","tag-region-of-queens","tag-severance-pay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9372,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9369\/revisions\/9372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}