“Migrant workers awarded more than $23K from N.S. seafood company”

A group of eight migrant workers from Mexico has been awarded a total of more than $23,000 in lost compensation from a seafood company based in southwest Nova Scotia.

In a decision from the Nova Scotia Labour Board released on June 14, chair Jasmine Walsh ordered Lower Wedgeport-based Ocean Pride Fisheries Ltd. to compensate the workers for deductions from their wages, missing hours, and pay that should have been provided in lieu of notice of termination.

The workers first filed complaints in September 2021 and the director of labour standards ruled in their favour in October 2023. That decision, however, was appealed by Ocean Pride in November of that year…

…the company claimed the workers had quit, while the workers alleged they were terminated without notice after they tried to talk to Ocean Pride about their working conditions.

The decision said there were also concerns about whether deductions from the workers' wages, including immigration fees, supplies and rent, were in keeping with the Labour Standards Code. …

Ocean Pride maintained the pay decisions were "appropriate" and that they held to the terms and conditions of the employment of the group, though the company "concedes that it was responsible" to cover their travel expenses, said the decision…