A North York recycling plant that employed low-wage temporary job agency workers for years has been ordered to pay $1.33 million in fines and back pay to workers for violating the City of Toronto’s fair wage policy.Canada Fibers Ltd. has two seven-year contracts to process blue bin recyclables for the city, worth a combined total of more than $264 million. Their contracts stipulated that all workers, including temp agency employees, were to be paid $12.34 an hour with pay increases tied to inflation, according to Fair Wage Office manager Mark Piplica. In 2015, a series of Star reports highlighted the story of “perma-temp” Angel Reyes, then a 61-year-old father of three who worked at the company for years at minimum wage — which at the time was $11 an hour. The city’s Fair Wage Office subsequently launched a two-year investigation into Canada Fibers and found that some 1,600 workers were owed money for being paid below agreed-upon rates. “We’re actually really close to finalizing all of the distribution (to workers),” said Piplica, who told the Star most employees owed money were hired through temp agencies. “Many workers, they’re going to get some money,” said Reyes. “That’s a beautiful thing.”Piplica said the investigation was complex because Canada Fibers has multiple locations, but said the company co-operated fully and will now be using directly-hired employees to process city recycling.“To their credit, they’ve stepped up,” Piplica said.A spokesperson for Canada Fibers said in a statement to the Star that the company was “pleased that it has now reached a fair and reasonable resolution with the city on the applicability of wage regulations to its Arrow Road facility.“Specifically, Canada Fibers has agreed to pay approximately $1.2 million in good faith payments to employees, with approximately $135,000 as an administration fee to the City of Tor ...
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