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Province investigating dozens of claims of unpaid work at Burnaby company

A director of the company was ordered to pay more than $7k to nine employees in August, and dozens more claims are being investigated
sameer aslami
Sameer Aslami stands outside the office of SecuriWorld Canada Security Services, a company he and others allege has not paid for their work as security guards.

A director of a Burnaby-based security company was ordered to pay nine employees a combined $7,000 in unpaid wages, while dozens more may still be owed money by the company.

An enforcement document from the director of employment standards, posted to the court services website, orders Mohammed Shukri Shubear, a director of South Burnaby-based SecuriWorld Canada Security Services, to send a certified cheque of $7,003.15 to the Employment Standards Branch.

That includes just over $6,900 in unpaid wages and $97.64 in interest, which would then be paid to the nine employees, according to the order.

But there may still be more payments due from SecuriWorld and Shubear.

Sameer Aslami, a former supervisor at SecuriWorld who has spearheaded the effort to get employees paid, says two paycheques he received from the company bounced. He is not named in the employment standards order against SecuriWorld.

Aslami showed the NOW records, confirmed as legitimate by bank employees, of two bounced cheques from SecuriWorld – dated July 17, less than a month after he said he started at the company – totalling nearly $1,080.

Aslami isn’t the only one to file a complaint with the Employment Standards Branch – the Ministry of Labour confirmed in a statement the branch began to receive more complaints in August 2019 after the original ESB order was settled, though it didn’t confirm how many complaints were filed.

But an email from an employment standards officer to Aslami, shown to the NOW, indicates more than 60 people have complained.

The new allegations following the original Employment Standards Branch order remain unproven.

Aslami was told the SecuriWorld file has been expedited in an email from an ESB officer reviewed by the NOW, but it still may take months to conclude.

“We’re just waiting to pay our rent,” Aslami said in late August. “There are people who have children.”

In its statement, the ministry said social assistance and employment supports may be available to those going through the employment standards process.

Shubear told the NOW the business ran out of money to pay its employees in a brief interview.

“There’s some stuff I can’t tell you, to be honest, because you’re a reporter,” he said. “So we are trying to resolve it and work on some stuff.”