A 48-year told Filipino caregiver has lodged a complaint before the provincial Employment Standards branch of British Columbia after failing to collect money she claims her employer owed her for taking care of their two children ages 1 and 7.
Ligaya Aquino, 48-years old, a live-in caregiver, filed the complaint last January 4, 2016 against her employer An Rui and Chun Qiao Yu both residents of West Vancouver. Miss Aquino said she was looking after the couple’s two children. Both parties, however, claimed completely opposite stories.
In the complaint, Aquino said she was made to work 12 hours a day six days a week starting May 25, 2015 until December 31, 2015.
“My employer only allowed me to eat leftovers, spoiled and expired food. I was not allowed to eat fresh food. I could only eat two or three days old food.”
“When I asked for overtime, she said no and fired me. I have record of the hours that she forced me to work. She refused to honor the contract she signed with me. She also deducted my salary for staining my bed. She was very unkind to me and has no respect for Canadian employment standards and contracts,” Aquino said.
“My employer only allowed me to eat leftovers, spoiled and expired food. I was not allowed to eat fresh food. I could only eat two or three days old food. She also deducted the cost of anything that I broke from my salary. She told me that in China she fired 35 nannies in a row,” Aquino stated.
She added when they went on vacation, she was forced to leave the house without room and food. “They made me work on holidays,” she said.
Ligaya Aquino also stated she is owed $10,460 in overtime hours.
In total, she worked for the couple for seven months and 18 days. We interviewed people that know Ligaya that stated they never seen Ligaya on Saturdays which is supposed to be her day off. One friend reportedly would drop off food because they were concerned she was not eating properly.
MetroVan Independent News interviewed her former employer An Rui who told a completely different story. An Rui said Aquino was fired because she was not qualified to look after her children.
She denies that she made Aquino work more than eight hours a day or more than five days a week. She also denies she fired Aquino because she asked for overtime pay.
Rui claims the following misdeeds of Aquino. “Ligaya forgot to turn off the gas stove… she hurt her kids nose… she stayed up late… she didn’t pay attention to her child… she ruined a lot of the family’s clothes when doing the laundry… she stayed up late in her room… she was talking to someone late at night… “
When asked if she made Ligaya pay for the stained mattress, Rui said “not really”
An Rui said that Winnie Chen is looking for another caregiver in Taiwan for her.
According to Aquino, Winnie Chen of Richmond, British Columbia, is the recruiter in Taiwan that arranged her job with An Rui in Canada. Aquino said she paid Winnie Chen $120,000 Taiwanese dollars (approximately $5,000 CAD) for her services.
Meanwhile, a meeting between the parties will take place in front of an Employment Standards Branch officer sometime next month to resolve the issue.
