Toronto resident Joe De Barros worked hard most of last summer, running around making deliveries -- on contract -- as a courier. He couldn't believe it when three paycheques from his employer, Just In Time Express, were returned from the bank stamped NSF. He's even more amazed he's still trying to collect what's owed to him seven months later.

"It bothers me a lot to be honest with you," De Barros told CTV News. "It bothers me a lot."

Fed up with bounced paycheques and broken promises that he would get his money, he quit. His wife, Lisa Gilmour, went on a mission to get his money. After weeks of emails and phone calls, all Gilmour could get out of the company was a $400 down payment. Gilmour called Ontario's Ministry of Labour. They told her they couldn't help because De Barros was classified as a contract worker -- as opposed to an employee. Under the current law, the Ontario government doesn't collect unpaid wages for contract workers.

So, Gilmour spent hours preparing to take the company to small claims court. De Barros eventually won a judgment, which said the company still owes him over $3,000.

"It's a lot of paperwork and it's a lot of going back and forth," said Gilmour. "I don't think it's right that companies like this can take advantage of working people. They are out there making money for them."

Armed with his court judgment, De Barros decided to pay a visit to his ex-boss, Marco Urbano. As De Barros met Urbano at the front door of the company's office building, he showed him the court judgment. "You owe me money," De Barros said.

Urbano acknowledged the debt, but insisted he still couldn't pay right away. "You're going to have to give me some time," Urbano told De Barros.

"It's a lot of money, I need my money," said De Barros. "OK Joe," replied Urbano, "I understand."

De Barros hasn't heard from him since.

"It infuriates me," said Karen Dick of the Worker's Action Centre. "Especially when you see the numbers of people who work and don't get paid."

She blames what she calls weak provincial labour laws and even weaker enforcement. Dick's non-profit agency helps collect unpaid wages for workers who are classified as employees -- those workers who are supposed to be backed by Ontario's labour legislation.

"It's like the wild west out there," Dick said. "If you are an employer, you've got it made."

She points to the Ontario government's own statistics, which show 20,000 employees complain to the Ministry of Labour each year -- most about unpaid wages. About three-quarters of those complaints are investigated, but those probes take six to eight months. Even when the government orders companies to pay, some still don't. There are currently $30.5 million in unpaid wages owed to Ontario workers by employers who have been told by the government to pay.

"I think employers have a lot of confidence that they can evade the law and that they don't have to pay and they will have no consequence for doing that," said Dick.

The province has the power to take a range of actions -- from handing out $300 fines to taking employers to court. In 2006, though, only 18 of the most serious offenders were prosecuted. Most employers just get fines, and are ordered to pay the wages owing. If they don't, those cases are sent to collection agencies, where it can take many more months to collect. Some of the employers -- like Amato Pizza of Toronto -- owe back wages to several workers. That company has owed 10 ex-workers more than $50,000 in unpaid wages, since as far back as 2005.

"The government is complicit in allowing employers to get away with impunity," said Dick. "People are working for no wages at all. People are working for incredibly low wages. People are being set up in all kinds of situations where they have to pay fees to even get a job or get a contract."

Worker's Action Centre volunteers sometimes go along with workers who want to confront their former employers in person. Dick said, often, by that time, the employer is long gone.

CTV News asked Ontario's premier, Dalton McGuinty, why his government doesn't just send more people out to collect for those employees right away. He told us the province has hired more inspectors and they are trying.

"There's a law on the books," he answered. "All Ontarians are obligated to respect that law."

"There are no laws to protect us," said Joe De Barros, who thinks the law itself should be strengthened -- to protect the thousands of contract workers just like him.

His wife Lisa Gilmour thinks if more people did what she did, the government would pay more attention.

"Everybody is afraid to speak up," Gilmour said. "I think people who are being taken advantage of like this should stand up and fight."

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