Originally published June 20, 2012.

EDMONTON - Alberta bosses who don’t pay their employees will have their names posted online for all to see, the province announced Tuesday.

Human Services Minister Dave Hancock said roughly 1,700 employers owe 3,500 Alberta workers more than $14 million in unpaid earnings. Their names are now listed in a searchable online database.

“These numbers are disturbing,” Hancock said. “These claims represent money that was properly earned by Albertans, but never received.

“Employers have had a chance to appeal orders and dispute the claims, but in the end, they’ve refused to pay what was owing to the employees.”

The amounts owed range from $15 to more than $3 million. The vast majority of companies owe fewer than 10 people, and just a handful owe more than 20.

The worst offender is SSEC Canada Inc., which has 129 complaints against it and owes workers a total of $3.5 million.

The company is the Canadian subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec, which also faces charges under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act for the 2009 deaths of two Chinese men working on an Canadian Natural Resources project in Alberta’s oilsands.

The top five offenders also include Conversion Works Canada, which owes 19 people $682,000, and KP Manufacturers, a Calgary-based woodworking company that owes 17 people nearly $236,000.

Southview Kiddie Kampus Daycare in Medicine Hat is next on the list, owing 51 people more than $188,000. The last in the top five is Life Time Stucco and Plastering, which owes 31 people more than $187,000.

Hancock said the government is posting the names of the companies on its website “so the public can easily see which firms are treating their employees properly, and which ones are not.”

Richard Truscott of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said he supports the move as long as the government’s information is accurate and efforts to educate business owners continue.

“If they have it wrong, there could be significant damage to a business owner’s reputation that is completely undeserved,” Truscott said. “But as long as those businesses have been given reasonable opportunities to appeal ... then there doesn’t seem to be anything too offside here.”

“More broadly, we think government should be focused squarely on improving the level of understanding and awareness among business owners about what the rules are.”

kkleiss@edmontonjournal.com

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