Coquitlam company ordered to hand over vacation pay and compensation to former employee

A Coquitlam wholesale housewares business has been ordered to pay a former employee more than $5,000, following a recent ruling by the Employment Standards Tribunal.

Stefany Renteria worked in sales for Style by West Trading Inc. for nearly seven years before being laid off in March 2020 due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August, approximately five months after the layoff, Renteria was presented with a written contract. Her work had previously been based on a verbal agreement. Renteria was asked to sign and return the contract to the employer in one week and to return to work at the end of the month. She was also offered a $100 signing bonus.

Prior to the pandemic, Renteria was eligible for a two percent commission on sales made to two vendors. She had also received $5,000 for trade show work.

Under the terms of the new contract, Renteria wouldn’t earn sales commissions nor work at trade shows.

Renteria didn’t sign the contract nor return to the job. She later filed a complaint alleging Style by West Trading didn’t pay her compensation for length of service or vacation pay.

Style By West argued the company wasn’t liable because Renteria: “abandoned her employment” after being recalled, according to the judgment.

The tribunal rejected that argument, concluding the employee was being made to accept: “unilateral and substantial changes to the terms of her employment,” in order to keep working there.

Those changes included reductions in both responsibilities and wages.

The tribunal fined the company a total of $1,000 for contravening the Employment Standards Act.

Style by West Trading subsequently launched an appeal, charging the tribunal had either misapplied or misunderstood the law.

Some of the changes, including nixing trade show work, were made due to the realities surrounding the pandemic and “outside the employer’s control,” the company contended.

The company’s representative argued that changing the employee’s schedule was reasonable and that any restriction on commissions “was a direct result of the employee pursuing her own business outside of her job.”

The tribunal rejected that argument. Concerning trade shows, the tribunal noted that, while the employer had no control over cancelled trade shows, the new contract eliminated Renteria’s opportunity to attend trade shows, “at any time in the future.”

Changes to Renteria’s days of work and hours were also made “without any consultation,” the tribunal noted.

Style by West attempted to argue that a company representative had spoken to an Employment Standards branch representative who informed them the changes were not substantial.

“The difficulty with this assertion, made for the first time on appeal, is that there is no record of who the employer’s representative spoke to, what information she gave to the branch representative, or what information she received,” concluded Employment Standards Tribunal member Carol L. Roberts.

Noting that Renteria’s ability to earn commission wages and attend trade shows constituted a “significant alteration,” Roberts dismissed the company’s appeal.

Style By West was ordered to pay Renteria $4,815 in compensation for length of service as well as $288 in vacation pay.