A group of 68 restaurant workers owed almost $700,000 in unpaid wages have yet to see a single penny of it — five months after the Ministry of Labour ordered their bosses to pay up, the Star has learned.

The ministry issued an order to pay in August to the employers, who owned four now-closed Chinese restaurants in the GTA and 15 other related businesses. But the ministry has so far been unable to collect the low-wage workers’ money or prosecute bosses Ellen Pun and Patsy Lai.

The landmark case was the culmination of an investigation by the ministry that lasted more than a year and a half. It found that workers at the Regal restaurants chain were denied money in a multitude of ways, including bounced cheques; being misclassified as liquor servers, who are not entitled to full minimum wage in Ontario; or simply being denied pay for months on end.

In total, Pun and Lai were found to owe workers $676,693.79 in basic salary, overtime, public holiday pay, severance pay and termination pay.

However, the ministry ordered Pun and Lai to pay out only $457,443.78 of that sum. Workers’ claims used to be capped at $10,000, which means Regal employees who were owed more than that limit were not eligible to receive all their entitlements. The cap was removed by the government last year.

The Star was unable to reach Pun and Lai for comment. Phone numbers for the four Regal restaurants in Scarborough, Richmond Hill and Mississauga are no longer in service. The number for the company's head office, Ellen Food Group Inc., is disconnected.

The Star requested comment from Pun through her lawyer, John J.S. Park, who is representing Pun in an unrelated criminal matter, but she did not respond. Park said he was unable to comment on the Ministry of Labour investigation; his only comment on the criminal matter was that the case is ongoing and would resume in court in March 29.

The workers’ lawyer, Avvy Go, of the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, said her clients were losing hope of ever seeing the money they are legally entitled to.

“They are still waiting, and honestly, I think many of them have given up,” she told the Star.

Jian E. Gu, who worked as a waitress at Regal Chinese Restaurant & Banquet Hall in Scarborough until the end of 2013, is still owed $3,000 in wages and termination pay from Pun and Lai. Gu said she was paid $8.90 an hour and often worked up to 50 hours a week.

Speaking to the Star through a translator, she said the long wait for her money is having a huge financial impact on her family of three.

“When I was working, I paid taxes,” she said. “But when I had difficulties, I couldn’t get protection.”

In addition to trying to collect unpaid wages from Pun and Lai, the ministry can also prosecute them — which could result in hefty fines or imprisonment.

When Go approached the Ministry of Labour about pursuing prosecutions, she was told the ministry was preparing documentation to seek prosecution but that the final decision rested with the Attorney General’s office, according to a September letter seen by the Star.

Go told the Star she has not received a response to a subsequent letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Patrick Monahan in November urging him to take action.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office referred the Star to the Ministry of Labour, whose spokesperson, William Lin, said no decision has been made about prosecuting Pun and Lai. He said all measures were being taken to recover the workers’ money, but that none of Pun and Lai’s businesses were found to have any assets.

Pun and Lai both filed for personal bankruptcy in 2014. Records show Pun had debts of $11.3 million, and Lai, $5.4 million. Their sole asset was an Aurora house worth $4.2 million, according to legal documents from that time. That home has since been sold through power of sale.

Pun is currently facing charges of defrauding a man of more than $600,000 in a property investment, according to York Regional Police, who said Pun’s passport has been seized in connection with the case.

The Star has previously highlighted the Ministry of Labour’s enforcement problems and the difficulties workers face in recovering stolen wages. Figures requested by the Star show that in 2014, 63 per cent of all Ministry of Labour orders to pay issued to employers went uncollected.

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When an employer declares bankruptcy, recovering wages is even harder. Ontario used to maintain a wage protection program to compensate employees when bosses went bankrupt and left workers out-of-pocket. The fund was scrapped in 1995.

Go said the ministry should seek more prosecutions to deter future violations. In 2014, the Ministry of Labour prosecuted just eight law-breaking employers.

“It signals to the employer this is wrong, you are breaching the law, you are violating the law,” she said. “It’s not just about the wrong to the worker — it’s the wrong to society as a whole.”