I have an open 3 year post-graduate work permit which expires in July 2014.
I worked for these two "silly" guys without a contract and they didn't want to do payroll. At the "interview" we just orally agreed they'd pay me $19/ hour and I'll me somewhat receptionist/secretary at their office. I asked them if they'd do all necesary paperwork and they assured it'll be 100% legal.
When I started working, they claimed they can just give me cheques as they are a small business and are not obliged to do payroll. Because I was personally interested in making it look as legal as possible, I ended up registering their company with CRA for payroll and sending cheques with income tax signed by the owner. I counted my hours, and gave the pay cheques for the owner to sign. No vacation pay as I didn't know how to do that. I created my own T4s but didn't send another copy to CRA on the behalf of my employer because I didn't know at that point this is something companies are supposed to do and my employer obviously didn't bother. They always asked me to wait with depositing my pay cheques as they didn't have enough money on their account. No need to say, our relationship was very informal: they were immigrants in the past with common background, so they would commonly yell at me, or borrow money from me.
When I finally got a real job offer and told them I'm quitting, one of the owners yelled at me. I told him I'm depositing the cheque for the last two months that I was holding on to as he asked me not to deposit it as they (again!) didn't have enough money on their account. He said if I do that, he'll claim that I stole the empty cheques from him and he'll report me to the police. He said I already got all money I deserved. When I suggested to meet and check through online banking how much money I got, how many cheques I deposited and how much they owe me, he hang up. I tried to arrange a meeting with the other guy but he kept postponing it and inviting me to the streap club instead. I gave up. It all happened last summer. I emailed them asking to pay me the money that they owed me, the guy called me and literally said "WTF?" I called Alberta Employment-something asking what I should do, they advised me to write a complaint. I never did because my friends-lawyers advised me not to, if they do accuse me of something i didn't do, and even if I'm cleared, I'll still have a police record of being accused of something. Good bye, immigration then. I applied to get a Record of Employment from them through Alberta- Employment in May 2012, but I never heard from them so far. I guess they were not successful either.
So yeah, it's technically a legal job but not that much. I said good bye to almost $3000 they owe me and I don't wish these guys to get in trouble, I just want to get my paperwork done.
