‘Don’t leave us to the dirt’: Former Vancouver tech school staff fight for thousands in missing pay

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Ten thousand dollars in missing wages has the power to uproot an entire family.

That’s the harsh lesson Becky Parmiter, a former instructor at RED Academy, is coming to terms with after the abrupt closure of the prominent tech school in Vancouver last year.

Launched in 2015, Red Academy attracted local and international students who were eager to work in Vancouver’s technology sector in the offices of Hootsuite, Slack, and Unbounce. Generally, its diploma programs offered six months of courses in web development and digital marketing, followed by six months of internships. The programs cost $12,000 to $21,000.

When RED Academy abruptly shut its doors in March 2020, dozens of international students along with staff and instructors were suddenly left with unanswered questions over their tuition and outstanding wages.

In a Zoom meeting, leaders blamed the closure on the financial fallout from COVID-19 but several employees told CityNews there were financial troubles at the academy long before the pandemic.

Related article: Closure of Vancouver’s top tech school leaves teachers, students in financial mess

CityNews has obtained emails indicating the school’s leaders were desperately searching for investors to keep the school running in December 2019 — three months before any pandemic lockdown measures went into effect.

“It’s just fundamentally wrong to turn your back on hundreds of people who worked on the ground day after day to make RED Academy such an incredible community in Vancouver,” said Parmiter, who had trouble getting paid at the school for over a year.

“I just don’t think there’s any accountability,” she added.

At least $100,000 reportedly owed to former instructors across Canada

Parmiter taught digital marketing and is one of dozens of contract instructors who worked at the academy’s Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto campuses. Her correspondence with these instructors suggests the company owes at least $100,000 in missing wages.

She believes it was their business model to hire as many contract instructors as possible and as few permanent staff as necessary. Out of desperation to get her wages back, she says she reached out to former CEO Roy Agostino in Toronto for help.

“I called him in tears, and basically said ‘Roy, I really need this money. It’s gotten to a point now where we can’t afford to pay rent.’ My partner and I actually had to move from a house where I had office space … into a really small one bedroom, one bathroom in Vancouver,” said Parmiter who relocated to Penticton in January.

Parmiter is part of a group of former instructors who filed complaints to investigate a breach to the Employment Standards Act with the Ministry of Labour.

Currently, there are 20 complaints against RED Academy filed with the Employment Standards Branch in B.C. These complaints were filed between March 16 and April 21, 2020. Eleven months later, the complainants have yet to hear back from the ministry.

In a statement to CityNews, Harry Bains, minister of labour, said the employment standards branch, is “facing a backlog of complaints and wait times have increased” during the pandemic.

Eleven months after closing, workers still waiting for company management to declare bankruptcy

In addition to filing complaints with the Ministry of Labour, former staff tried to claim their lost wages under the federal government’s Wage Earner Protection Program (WEPP), which helps compensate workers with outstanding wages. However, the company must declare bankruptcy or receivership for workers to make claims, and former Red Academy management have yet to take action.

One of those former staff waiting for the bankruptcy filing to claim lost wages is Kamila Suchomel who wants to use the $3,000 she is owed to pursue a PhD. She is frustrated by the lack of “responsibility” by former management and wants to see someone step up temporarily and declare bankruptcy to help former staff like herself get closure.

“Don’t just leave us to the dirt,” Suchomel said. “It’s about empathy to other humans on the planet.”

Related: Tech school shutdown leaves former students and employees with unanswered questions

In response, Agostino wrote in a statement that the “company directors are required to pass a motion authorizing a filing for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, there were no longer any RED Academy Directors at the material time, and no one available to serve as interim directors.”

Colin Mansell, who founded RED Academy, said in a statement to CityNews that the company listed in the federal registry “is a dormant subsidiary that was never active.” Mansell maintains that he resigned from the academy in 2019 and cannot comment on the events after his departure.

Living with the emotional toll after closure

To this day, Suchomel feels the guilt of what happened to people she’s worked with in her role as campus experience coordinator. Shortly before closing, she hired a freelance photographer to take headshots of new students at the academy.

The photographer, Justina Tam, was never paid the $2,000 in fees owed by RED Academy.

Parmiter also felt grief and stress from dealing with the fallout of the abrupt closure. She said she received numerous messages from colleagues who were impacted.

“I was in tears every single day, just reading the stories of how people were affected. Some of them were refugees from other countries, or they were new immigrants to Canada. They just felt so helpless,” Parmiter said.

Suchomel also heard from international students, whose families saved for years so they could send their kids to study and work in Canada.

While people wait for refunds or missing pay, CityNews has discovered Mansell started advertising a new tech school in Singapore, very similar to RED Academy. In fact, for months after the academy closed, the school’s former website re-directed people to Mansell’s new school called Skills Union.

CityNews asked Mansell why he started a new school without first taking care of those left behind by the one he founded. He did not respond.

Former students and employees say once RED Academy closed, the communication line to school leaders also shut down. Many of them had questions that went unanswered. The big one: Where’s the money now?

With files from Pat Taney