A new management group taking over the Wharfside Seafood Grille are settling complaints from former employees who say they were not fully paid for wages, tips and overtime.

Maria Hernandez, a Wharfside manager, said Van Isle Hospitality Management has been contracted to manage the restaurant at 1208 Wharf St., which was closed Monday while former staff protested on the sidewalk. Hernandez has been hired by the company. She is the ex-wife of former manager Duncan Morrison, who resigned on Friday after coming under fire for not paying employees.

Van Isle Hospitality is owned by John Robert Owen and Floyd Becker and neither was in the office Monday, said company controller Lucy Storms.

“This is all just new. We only entered into the management 24 hours ago. So we will have to go in and do an assessment. The first thing that is being done of course is settling these labour standards complaints,” said Storms.

Asked about management plans and Hernandez’s role, Storms said, “it is still definitely in discussion and we are clarifying it.”

Van Isle Hospitality manages a number of Island restaurants and pubs, including the Oak and Carriage Neighbourhood Pub in Duncan, the Rod and Gun in Parksville and the Lantzville Village Pub, she said.

A lawsuit was filed in 2008 by Liquor Barn Income Fund against John Robert Owen and others over an alleged effort to defraud the publicly traded company over sales of several Island liquor stores and pubs. Maureen Abraham, a lawyer with the firm that represented Owen, said Monday the litigation was resolved out of court late last year and the matter did not go to trial.

Owen and Becker are also directors of the downtown Victoria Dalton Hotel and Suites Ltd., according to B.C. company registry records. The hotel was once owned by Morrison.

Morrison, who has left of trail of labour complaints spanning two decades and several businesses, told the Times Colonist last week he was leaving for Calgary. When reached Monday, Morrison was still in Victoria and said he will be leaving town “in a matter of days.”

Reading a statement in front to the downtown restaurant, Hernandez said the Wharfside Seafood Grille delivered “nine bank drafts to the labour board, satisfying a further nine of the outstanding complaints against the company.

“The remaining complaints would require a review of the amounts being claimed and the Wharfside Seafood Grille will comply with the labour board’s procedures in resolving them in a timely and equitable manner.”

Hernandez confirmed the new management company, but would not say who owns the Wharfside Seafood Grille business. The building is owned by private developer Cedric Steele.

As of last week, Wharfside Seafood Grille had 17 complaints filed against it with the provincial labour relations board, with 10 outstanding. A previous restaurant at the same location, the Wharfside Eatery, had three closed complaints. A complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing.

Morrison said that it is his understanding that employees were all being paid through the Labour Ministry, so he would not be leaving unpaid employees.

That’s not how some former employees see it.

One of the protest organizers, Beric Ofori, refused a $1,600 settlement on Monday saying, “I’m also fighting for other people who haven’t been paid.” Ofori, who filed a fraud complaint with Victoria police on Saturday, maintains he is owed $3,000 in all. He has said his cheques were signed by Hernandez.

Victoria Police Const. Mike Russell said the complaint was forwarded to the department’s financial crimes section, “who will handle the investigation.”

Cases involving allegations of fraud can be complicated, Russell said. “Detectives have just begun to review the file. They’re not yet able to ascertain if what was presented will constitute fraud under the Criminal Code.”

Victoria MLA Rob Flemming said when it comes to employment standards complaints, the system isn’t working the way it should.

Unhappy employees date further back, including those who worked for Morrison at the English Inn and Resort in Esquimalt. In 2009, land title record showed that the Inn was owned by a numbered company and Morrison and Hernandez were listed as directors. Former English Inn front office manager Cathy Samuel arrived at Monday’s protest, holding a cheque for $1,736 which she was not been able to cash because payment was stopped. “I actually put it away in a drawer so I would kind of never see it because I was hurt so badly by it.”

Samuel, who said she is still owed $7,800, and received the “run-around” after complaining to the Ministry of Labour. “Finally I got an e-mail from them saying that the case was closed because they were in receivership,” said Samuel.

Roxanne Fournier, 20, a UVic biology student, worked at the restaurant between May and October of last year. When business slowed in the fall, she said her vacation cheque bounced and other times she didn’t get a cheque at all. “It is always sort of relay between Duncan and Maria, where Duncan is the one who hands them out but Maria is the one who has to sign them.” The two were not at the restaurant at the same time. “So it’s very difficult to actually get the cheques,” she said.

Fournier accepted a money order for a little under $700 in wages through the employment branch on Monday, but said she is still waiting for overtime and tips owed.

Conor Farrer, 21, a UVic anthropology student who worked at Wharfside in August and September last year, held a sign stating “Pay up.” He worked as a cook and said he is owed vacation time and tips.

Contractor Kevin Busse said he was not paid by Morrison for a $300 rental for steel foundation posts plus his time on the Wharf Street building.

— with a file from Jeff Bell