Cabinet Makers Awarded Extended Wage Compensation Following ESA Reprisal Ruling

The Ontario Labour Relations Board has significantly increased compensation awards to two migrant workers after finding they were unlawfully terminated for asserting their rights under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), reinforcing the financial exposure employers face in reprisal cases involving closed work permits and fixed-term employment arrangements.

In Garick Ramsook v. 10047481 Canada Corporation o/a Polat Construction, 2026 CanLII 44353 (ON LRB), the Board amended earlier Employment Standards Officer (ESO) compensation orders and awarded total amounts of $87,936.95 to Garick Ramsook and $90,373.56 to Ramesh Ramsook. The awards included compensation in lieu of reinstatement, emotional pain and suffering damages, and mandatory ESA administration costs.

The applicants, brothers from Jamaica, were recruited to Ontario as cabinet makers under written employment contracts initially described as three-year arrangements. After delayed travel to Canada, the contracts effectively became two-year terms beginning July 24, 2023. They earned $26.06 per hour for 42.5 hours weekly and worked under closed work permits restricting them to employment with Polat Construction.

The workers were terminated on December 8, 2023, shortly after requesting payment of outstanding wages. The ESO determined the terminations constituted reprisals under subsection 74(1)(a)(i) of the ESA.

The Board heard evidence that the workers could not legally seek employment elsewhere until they obtained open work permits for vulnerable workers in June 2024. Both permits expired in June 2025. The employer also withdrew as guarantor on the workers’ housing lease following the terminations, leading to eviction proceedings.

Initially, the ESO had awarded each worker approximately $10,500 through separate categories for time required to find a new job, loss of continued employment, and emotional pain and suffering. The Board rejected that approach, instead combining direct earnings loss and loss of continued employment into a single compensatory analysis focused on restoring the employees to the position they would have occupied absent the reprisal.

Vice-Chair Alan Freedman wrote that compensation should reflect “ the position they would have been in had the responding party company not committed a reprisal under the Act by unlawfully terminating their employment.”

The Board determined compensation should extend from the termination date through the expiry of each worker’s open work permit in June 2025, reflecting both the workers’ inability to legally work elsewhere during part of that period and the expected duration of their employment contracts. Post-termination earnings of $9,500 earned by each applicant were deducted from the awards.

The resulting compensation calculations awarded Garick Ramsook $77,442.68 and Ramesh Ramsook $79,657.78 in compensation in lieu of reinstatement, in addition to $2,500 each for emotional pain and suffering. Mandatory ESA administration costs added another $7,994.27 and $8,215.78 respectively.

The employer did not participate in the Board proceedings or challenge the reprisal findings. The Board noted that employers bear the burden of proving any alleged failure by employees to mitigate losses and stated there was no evidence supporting a mitigation reduction beyond deducting actual post-termination earnings.