TORONTO -- Ontario's Ministry of Labour is investigating the Toronto gas station where an attendant was run over and killed last weekend by a driver who didn't pay for his fill-up, the government said Wednesday.
Jayesh Prajapati, 44, was killed Saturday night after a motorist filled up an SUV with $112 worth of gas and left the Shell station without paying, hitting the attendant with the vehicle.
"We owe it to the family to take a long, hard look at what lessons we might draw from this incident," Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey told the legislature.
Ministry officials have started a health and safety investigation, and will also check to see if there were any employment standards violations at the station.
"Let me be clear: the Employment Standards Act states it is illegal for an employer to dock an employee's wages for the company's lost or stolen property," said Jeffrey.
"That means that if a patron at a gas station gases and dashes, the employee cannot be docked wages for the loss to the company."
Shell Canada said company rules forbid workers from intervening in gas-and-dash incidents, and employees are trained to watch for suspicious activity so they can help police in an investigation.
However, the New Democrats said they don't believe the law protecting employees from having to pay for a company's losses is being strongly enforced, and worry many workers do not know their rights in such circumstances.
"This is not the first situation in this particular industry," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, referring to a 2011 incident at a Petro Canada station in Mississauga in which attendant Atifeh Rad, 62, lost his life when he was dragged by a motorist who was fleeing without paying for his gas.
"Certainly the very laws that exist to prevent this kind of thing from happening should be being enforced," added Horwath.
Liberal backbencher Mike Colle will introduce a private member's bill Thursday -- to be known as "Jayesh's Law" -- which he believes would help curb gas theft by forcing drivers to pay upfront before they fill-up.
But Jeffrey said an investigation of the 2011 death at the Mississauga gas station found the prepay solution was not popular with the industry.
"What we learned from that was there are significant concerns from stakeholders about the feasibility of the pay-at-the-pump laws," she said.
"Other jurisdictions have not seen the expected results or uptake after passing the legislation."
British Columbia instituted a pay-first policy in 2008 after a man was dragged to death while trying to stop a $12 gas and dash.
Prepayment is also common at many gas stations in the United States.
The minister said any worker who feels that their employer has made deductions that contravene the law may file a claim with her office.
"The ministry does take enforcement of the ESA very seriously and investigates all claims," she said.
Police are urging Max Edwin Tutiven, 39, of Toronto to turn himself in to face a charge of second-degree murder in connection with Prajapati's death.
