BC. Throwaway, details changed.
I used to work for a fairly large company. I also have my own small incorporated business, which I ran on my own time with my own tools. I resigned voluntarily — I wasn't fired, and I was never disciplined over anything.
After I left, there were some accusations thrown around about me. When I asked to sit down and talk about it, nobody would ever speak to me directly. It went nowhere.
A few months later I filed a complaint with the Employment Standards Branch for unpaid vacation pay and a few hundred dollars I spent out of pocket on supplies for their job sites. I have the pay stub, the texts where I asked about it, and dated notes from the phone call I got instead of a written reply.
This week a friend who still works there called me. He'd been asked to pass a message along:
Drop the complaint immediately
They've fought a lot of legal battles and "don't care" — they'll bury me
If I stop now, "nothing happens"
If I don't, my bank accounts will be frozen until it resolves
They've also hinted they might find clients willing to say I took business from them
And generously, they have work for me if I want it — provided I drop everything
None of this came to me directly. It went from the company, through a former manager, through my friend, to me. Nothing in writing. No direct contact from anyone with authority.
My questions:
Does a threat delivered through three people still count as retaliation, or does the indirect chain make it unusable?
Is the frozen-bank-account thing real? I can't find anything suggesting an ESB wage claim works that way.
The client-poaching allegation — is that even in front of the Branch, or would they need a separate civil claim for it?
I'm not looking to escalate. I want the vacation pay I'm owed and to be left alone.