The future of Teo Taxi is uncertain after the company ceased operations earlier this week and the 450 people who drove its cabs are worried they might not get paid what they’re owed for some time.
“The situation is pretty bad,” Stephane Lacroix, spokesperson for the Teamsters Canada union. “We learned yesterday through the trustee who is involved in this file that the drivers won’t be paid by Teo Taxi. So, no severance pay, no vacation pay, nothing. There’s no money left in the bank account.”
A court filing showed Teo Taxi and parent company Taxelco owe money to other entities than the drivers, with nearly $25 million in debt. While Quebecor chief Pierre Karl Peladeau said he might step in to resurrect the company, no plans have been confirmed.
Over 50 drivers received a letter telling them to apply for the Wage Earners Protection Program, a federal program that pays outstanding eligible wages to individuals whose employers went bankrupt.
Former driver Jamie Perzow said he was expecting pay on Friday and the letter came as a surprise.
“I was told by several supervisors that it was not going to be a problem, certainly since the day they ceased all activities and even before that,” he said.
Perkow said he can’t afford to wait the four to six weeks it will take for the federal funding to come through.
“It puts me in a difficult situation, I thought with the little money I had, plus the $2,000 I was expecting this morning that I would be okay for the next three or four weeks,” he said.
Lacroix said the union is working on helping drivers like Perkow find new jobs and will be meeting with them next week.
“Will they continue to work in the taxi industry or will they try something else?” he said. “We got some phone calls from trucking companies looking for people, so we’re going to connect those people together and they’ll be talking to each other. Hopefully, they will find a job as soon as possible.”
