Toronto businessman faces new wage theft claims, still owes $290K in wages years after conviction

A Toronto businessman continues to face new claims of wage theft and government orders to pay employees in the years since he and a few of his companies were charged for not complying with Ontario Ministry of Labour orders to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages in 2019.

Anchuan Jiang and one of his companies pled guilty to some of those charges under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) in 2021 and were fined a combined $100,000 in provincial court. 

Despite this conviction, a CBC Toronto investigation found Jiang still owes at least $290,000 in unpaid wages, has received 18 more orders to pay wages against one of his private schools totalling nearly $184,000, and is facing at least two more claims for unpaid wages since December 2023 from former employees of another private school he owns.

In an email statement, Jiang said he and his companies are working toward paying most of the wages owed by the end of this year.

Former employees and a workers' rights organization say Jiang's case highlights how Ontario's ESA enforcement system is failing workers and why harsher penalties for employers are needed in order to deter and prevent some of them from repeatedly breaking the law.

"The system has to change," said Cordel Browne, who filed a claim in January for a month of unpaid wages from Jiang's private school, Ontario College.

"When you think of people having problems with their mortgage payments or maybe child-care payments or student loans — the ripple effects can be really, really damaging."

Browne, was a teacher at the school from late November 2023 to the beginning of January. That's when he says the landlord of the office building where the school is located gave him a letter for Jiang showing the school owed more than $100,000 in unpaid rent. 

When he mentioned the debt to Jiang in an email, Jiang fired Browne in his response. 

CBC Toronto has reviewed photos of the landlord's letter and emails between Browne and Jiang. It's unclear whether the rent has since been paid. 

Browne says he is owed $5,800, but doesn't expect to see it. 

"I'd much rather the people who are out several months get their wages," he said. 

"He needs to be held accountable for what he's done."

In a statement, Jiang told CBC Toronto that Ontario College and his other private schools "diligently" process monthly wages for current and laid-off teachers and staff in line with their employment agreements.