Unpaid and overworked: labour violations in Canadian trucking
6/2/202626 min
The Canadian trucking industry touches almost every aspect of commercial life — most Canadian products on store shelves made at least some part of their journey on the back of a truck. The conditions for drivers who got them there, however, are getting worse.
A Globe investigation by Sara Mojtehedzadeh , an investigative reporter at The Globe, and Mahima Singh, a Globe data editor, looked into the concerns raised by drivers and experts in the trucking industry. They found widespread accusations of wage theft and exploitation, violations of labour laws and insufficient training. Sara’s on the show to detail the working conditions for drivers , the impact of lax enforcement, and how this jeopardizes safety on the roads.
Sara and Mahima will hold a Q&A about their investigation on Wednesday, June 3, at 12 p.m. ET. Send them your questions in advance.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNav· Soundbite0:03
One fine day if you're working, you're employed, and suddenly we get to know a bad news like, "No, not just your money is gone, also you are jobless."
Cheryl Sutherland· Host0:14
You're hearing from a truck driver named Nav. The Globe agreed to only use his first name because he says he fears retribution from his former employer. Nav has been in the industry for a decade, and he says he experienced wage theft after the company he was working for in 2024 filed for bankruptcy.
Nav· Soundbite0:34
I personally was owed between 15 to $20,000. Uh, you know, and I personally know 60, 70 people, the money they were owed went up to $40,000. Even the process to get that money is very hard. You know, you're already going through a lot. You lost your job. You gotta source a job to get the bread and butter for the family. You lost the money that you worked for. 18 months to just get an officer for your case, it's too much. And that too, after 18 months, the company's filed for bankruptcy, you're not getting nothing.
Cheryl Sutherland· Host1:07
Nav says he hasn't seen any money of the thousands that he's owed. [instrumental music plays] Our colleagues Sara Mojtahedzadeh, an investigative reporter for The Globe, and Maheema Singh, a Globe data journalist, have spent months looking into the cracks in the trucking industry. And the issues they found