Former Neptune security guards left unpaid in wake of firm's loss of public contracts

Amgad Hassan, a security guard who used to work for Neptune Security Services at Dawson College in Montreal, says neither he nor any of his 15 colleagues have received a final paycheque or their accumulated vacation pay from Neptune.

Neptune lost its contract at the college, as well as other provincial and federal public contracts, after a Radio-Canada investigation revealed questionable business practices — including the fact that Neptune's CEO had a double identity.

Hassan and his co-workers have been allowed to keep their jobs at Dawson under a new company, but he said most of them are owed about $4,000 by Neptune and their former employer isn't telling them anything.

"Many of us have many responsibilities. We have families. We have responsibilities. So it's really affecting us in a very difficult way," he said.

The union representing the guards told CBC News that there are dozens more people in Hassan's position across Quebec.

When CBC asked about its situation on Monday, Neptune replied with an emailed statement, saying: "The company intends to respond before the appropriate judicial bodies regarding these matters."

Company closing Quebec operations 

According to the union, people at the company's main office in Laval, Que., spent Monday clearing out the premises.

On Tuesady, Radio-Canada confirmed the security firm, which had been declining to say much to reporters, is indeed shutting down Quebec operations.

In one letter Radio-Canada obtained, the human resources department wrote to an employee to inform them their employment is terminated due to Neptune's closure.

Isabelle Cimon has also confirmed the news. She heads the Comité paritaire des agents de sécurité, which oversees the administration of security officers. She said Robert Butler, Neptune's CEO, has told the organization verbally that operations in Quebec are ceasing.

She said Butler "intends, gradually over the next few weeks, next months, to pay the sums due in wages."

About 1,000 security guards currently work in Quebec for this company, which had 133 public contracts and 19 private contracts as of February. The value of the contracts exceeded $240 million.

Neptune to make its case next month

But that extensive contract portfolio began collapsing soon after Radio-Canada's Enquête program revealed in March, among other things, that Butler has also been using the name Badreddine Ahmadoun.

For months before the Enquête program aired, the company had been under investigation by Quebec's Autorité des marchés publics (AMP), the agency that oversees public contracts in the province.

Within a week of Radio-Canada's revelation, Neptune was banned for five years from accepting public contracts in the province, after the AMP added the firm to the province's registry of inadmissible companies.

On April 6, the Quebec Superior Court issued a temporary suspension of the AMP decision until May 18, 2023, when arguments will be heard about Neptune's eligibility. Until that time, the company continues to be legally allowed to be awarded public contracts or subcontracts.

However, on April 12, the federal government suspended Neptune's contracts until further notice.

Neptune's long list of clients over the past decade included the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force.

It has also provided security to several courthouses in Quebec, to construction projects on military bases and to roadwork projects with Ontario's Transport Ministry.

Vincent Boily, president of the security guard union, Syndicat de la sécurité privée au Québec, said the union welcomes Neptune's departure from the province. 

"The contracts on which the agents work will be taken over by more respectable companies who will pay our members for their work," Boily said.

"Their departure will not put an end to our recourse against them and we will do everything we can to ensure that our members recover what they are owed."

Boily said the union is still trying to get a clear picture of the situation to file a collective grievance against Neptune.