More than two-dozen tree planters employed by Surrey-based Khaira Enterprises will be paid $225,000 in unpaid wages.
The B.C. Employment Standards Branch ordered the company to pay the workers after an investigation that began last summer following claims Khaira failed to properly feed or house the workers and their paycheques bounced.
The landed immigrant workers, most of the them from the Congo and Burundi, were employed at Bluewater Creek, 40 kilometres west of Golden, B.C. The Khaira camp was discovered by forestry ministry staff who were investigating reports of illegal burning.
When they discovered the workers had no money, no transportation and were unable to leave the remote location, the RCMP was called in and the camp was shut down last July 21.
- with files from CTV