Foreign workers accuse hotelier with history of labour violations of taking advantage of them in Sask., Man.

A man from Mexico says he toiled long hours, seven days a week, for nearly a year without proper pay for a hotel chain that he says took advantage of him and others. 

Victor Padilla Ruiz says he came to Canada in 2022 after he was told he would work as a chef at a restaurant for a hotel being opened in Melita, Man., by the Saskatchewan-based Western Star All Suites hotel chain.

Instead, the Mexican national says he was sent to work as a cook at the chain's location in Esterhazy, Sask.

"If I have to go [do] something outside, they always [were] angry and they tell me, 'Why you are outside?'" Padilla Ruiz told CBC News.

"I cannot speak English. I don't have enough money [to] come back to my country…. I can't work without work permit, and they told me, 'OK, you can start. No worries, in 15 days, we will apply for you.'"

Padilla Ruiz then moved to Western Star's Melita location in 2023, where he says he experienced similar conditions. 

For nearly a year in Melita, he worked an average of 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

In November 2024, Manitoba Employment Standards ordered Western Star director Harpinder Kaur Brar to pay Padilla Ruiz $84,917 in owed wages, according to a decision shared with CBC News.

The amount was based on unpaid overtime, holiday vacation pay and other wages from a 10-month period ending May 11, 2024.

Padilla Ruiz says his former employer appealed the decision, so he’s still waiting for the money he’s owed.

A Manitoba government spokesperson told CBC in an email earlier this year that the Employment Standards claim remains active, but no further information can be disclosed at this time.

It's not the only labour dispute the hotel chain faced at the time.

Manitoba Employment Standards rulings show the hotel was ordered to pay owed wages to two other unnamed employees in November 2024 – on the same day as the ruling on Padilla Ruiz's owed wages was issued.

According to the Employment Standards documents, the director of Western Star, also unnamed, said she assumed the role of director after the sudden death of her husband, and she is appealing all decisions.