Nineteen former employees of the defunct 28 Lister Chophouse and Grill have received none of the wages owed to them even though the former owner has been ordered by the province to pay them.

Chris DesRoches was ordered by the Ministry of Labour in February to pay close to $29,600 to employees after his restaurant in the city-owned Lister building was shut down just two months after opening.

Workers' rights advocates say provincial legislation should be changed to crack down on wage theft by employers.

Deena Ladd, co-ordinator of the Workers Action Centre, said ministry orders to pay unpaid wages "mysteriously go into some sort of nether hole. This is exactly what we've been dealing with for 15 years."

She said the province contracts out its collection services and there is a just a 2 per cent success rate.

Ladd says the tale of 28 Lister is a common one because the restaurant industry is particularly bad when it comes to fair treatment of employees.

That leaves employers who pay fair wages and offer good working conditions to compete against those who cut corners and break the law.

And there are just 180 enforcement officers to look into employment standards violations, less than half the number devoted to occupational health and safety inspections.

While the Employment Standards Act allows for stiff penalties, fines of up to $50,000 for a convicted individual and up to 12 months in prison and $500,000 in fines for repeat offences, they are rarely, if ever, imposed.

"In my opinion, that power is underutilized because we generally treat white-collar crime as minor in nature, even though the harm it inflicts can be very serious," said David Doorey, a law professor at Osgoode Hall who specializes in labour law.

A Toronto Star series in May found that 15,485 complaints made last year prompted just 2,768 workplace inspections and only eight resulted in prosecutions with serious financial penalties.

It is far more common for the ministry to issue orders against companies than to prosecute them. But there is no public registry of employers that have orders against them or that have failed to pay such orders.

Doorey believes violators should be restricted from registering new companies or from acting as an officer of a corporation. Once outstanding orders and fines have been paid, Doorey says past violators should be treated as "high-risk employers" and should have to disclose their past convictions to job applicants and undergo special inspections.

Employees of 28 Lister, including servers, busboys, an executive chef and a sommelier, all complained to The Spectator that DesRoches repeatedly promised wages through an email money transfer but the money never arrived.

When employees pushed him, DesRoches told them to go to the labour board. The city terminated his lease in early November. (It is now home to Wendel Clark's Classic Grill and Bar, which opened last week.)

Unpaid workers lose their homes or apartments, go into debt or have to put off going to school, says Ladd at the Workers Action Centre. And most never report the issue. Complaints must be named and workers face consequences from their bosses, she said.

Ladd's group wants to see the ministry accept anonymous complaints that trigger full-scale investigations of a business's practices.

A poll in 2011 found that of 500 Workers Action Centre clients, just 4 per cent went to the ministry.

A spokesperson with the Ministry of Labour confirmed DesRoches has neither paid nor appealed orders to pay. A director's order to pay was then issued, but it, too, was neither paid nor appealed.

"As a result of the nonpayment, the orders have been sent to the Ministry of Finance to pursue collection activity," William Lin said by email.

He referred questions about "collection activity" to the Ministry of Finance. A spokesperson there couldn't immediately outline the collection process Monday.

As far as a public record of employers goes, Lin said: "The Ministry of Labour does not publicize its enforcement history with employers. However, the ministry does post certain prosecutions on its website. If the media has questions about enforcement history, they can contact the media line."

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Ladd's Toronto-based group is pushing the province to prosecute more violators, put liens against their property and impose heavy fines. She wants to see business owners found guilty of stealing wages blocked from getting permits, licences or certificates from the province or municipalities so that they can't open other operations.

"There is no active collection process or means of enforcement . Things have improved but employers don't feel the heat. They rely on a broken system," she said.

"There should not be repeat violators."