A Vancouver bakery cafe has lost its appeal of an order to pay a former employee for unpaid overtime, holiday pay and tips it kept from her.
BC’s Employment Standards Tribunal dismissed the appeal by SP Cafe Corp., the company that runs Wicked Cafe and Bakery, in an August 2026 decision.
The former employee worked front of house and as a baker.
She filed a complaint back in November 2023.
She said the cafe paid her overtime at her regular rate, not the higher overtime rate, and that she’d worked 120 extra hours she was never paid for, on things like staff meetings and baking schedules.
In October 2025, the province’s Employment Standards Branch found the cafe hadn’t paid her proper overtime or stat holiday pay, and had kept tips that were hers.
The cafe was ordered to pay her $3,078.23 in owed wages, plus interest, and to pay $2,000 in penalties to the province.
The 120 extra hours weren’t part of that order, because there wasn’t enough evidence for them.
The cafe’s appeal still spent a lot of time arguing against those hours anyway, and the decision points out that “the Delegate did not accept any claim for these hours.”
The cafe said it couldn’t gather proper witness statements because its sole director had been out of Canada since November 2022 under a CBSA exclusion order.
Tribunal member M. Diane Irvine didn’t buy it. The case had taken almost two years, and she wrote that the cafe “had ample opportunity to contact potential witnesses.” It had also already sent in responses from its general manager and kitchen manager.
For the appeal, the cafe sent new material: statements from those two managers that weren’t sworn, business records, and photos of the former employee at social events and of a new tattoo.
The Tribunal refused to consider any of it.
The cafe also claimed a supervisor who was close to the former employee had manipulated evidence in her favour.
The Tribunal said this mostly repeated arguments already made, and that “an appeal is not an opportunity to re-argue a case that has been fully made before the delegate.”
In the end, the Tribunal ruled the appeal had no real chance of winning and kept the order at $5,078.23, plus interest.
Wicked Cafe and Bakery is still operating both of its Vancouver locations, on West 7th Avenue and West 16th Avenue.
In BC, employers can’t keep or take a cut of their staff’s tips, though tips can still be pooled and shared among staff.
On the West Side, Doe Coffee, the no-tipping cafe, is opening at UBC, and Unveil Coffee Roasters is bringing a living-wage, no-tipping model to Kitsilano.
Address
Wicked Cafe and Bakery, 1399 West 7th Avenue and 3605 West 16th Avenue, Vancouver
