Caregiver Richel dela Cruz receives her work permit from the Canadian government. JHONG DE LA CRUZ PHOTOS
RED DEER, Alberta – The federal government should give migrant workers a voice in its planned full-scale review of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, various groups of migrant worker advocates said.
The Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights Canada (CMWRC), an umbrella alliance of migrant rights advocates in six provinces, is backing the review of the TFWP but is urging the federal government to work with the migrant worker sector in creating changes.
In a statement, the alliance said that the review must result in improved living and working conditions for caregivers, seasonal agricultural workers and other low-wage temporary foreign workers that make up the guest workers sector in Canada.
Free
In December 2015, foreign worker Danilo de Leon was granted an open work permit seven years since coming to Canada. This gave him freedom after four years
from being locked in with his employer Petro Canada, a gas retail company.
De Leon is currently volunteer coordinator for the Temporary Foreign Workers Association based in Edmonton, while maintaining two jobs in a fast food restaurant and a retail store.
“It frees you up from the whims of your employer,” de Leon said, referring to his open work permit status here. With an open permit, a foreign worker is allowed to seek another employment when they feel aggrieved by their original employer.
De Leon said he often spent over 100 hours a week but remained underpaid while working as a supervisor for Petro Canada. He said he was asked to perform managerial duties but was denied the proper salary.
“Foreign workers, compared to locals, are made to work beyond what is stipulated in their contracts. Most will suffer just to stay in Canada,” he said.
De Leon made headlines in Alberta when in 2010, along with other foreign workers, he came forward to file a complaint against their employer, Bee Clean. As a result, the cleaning contractor for the University of Alberta had to compensate its estimated 1,200 workers some $776,000 in owed overtime salaries. The move also forced the company to acknowledge the workers’ union.
Danilo de Leon, a foreign worker from the Philippines in Canada for seven years now, heads to work.
De Leon said his group calls for open work permits and permanent status for foreign workers who enter Canada, and that foreign workers benefit from paying into Canada Pension Plan.
“We hope that the federal government consults with frontline workers too not just with employers,” he said.
In peril
Meanwhile, fish plant owners in Atlantic Canada fear that the thin levels of their staffing, as a direct result of reduced number of foreign workers, could imperil their businesses as they prepare for the opening of the fishing season this April.
This year, most fish plants will have some 50 foreign workers to man their facilities, down from 100 a year ago, said Josie Baker, coordinator with non-government organization Cooper Institute, based in Prince Edward Island.
This is why the owners are lobbying Service Canada in the province to immediately issue open works permit to those foreign workers with expired work permits, or have reached the four-year cap, in order to avoid scaling down their operation this year, she said.
Baker said that the foreign workers, mostly Asian women, have trouble applying for permanent residence status because of the seasonal nature of their work. Where most foreign workers in other industries would work full-time hours, fish plant workers rely on weather and sea conditions and could only work nine months out of twelve.
Although PEI has its provincial nominee program, a pathway for permanent residence, fish plant workers have to find other jobs with full-time hours such as in fast food restaurants, to eventually land a permanent resident status.
“With an open permit, foreign workers could work in fish plants for nine months, work the rest of the year in other jobs without restrictions,” said Baker.
Among the seafood companies, South Shore Seafoods Ltd., PEI Mussel King Inc., Acadian Fishermen’s Cooperative Association ltd., and Royal Star Foods Ltd. are known to hire workers from the Philippines.
Protection
In 2014, foreign workers saw major changes in the TFW program under the previous government, which critics said hurt local economies.
Changes included a $1,000 processing fees imposed on employers, a restriction of four years for workers to stay in Canada and stricter onsite inspections at workplaces where TFWs are hired.
The changes also spelled out progressive caps on employers who by July 2016, will see more cutbacks on their low-wage workers staffing at only 10 percent per worksite. Employers in areas with more than 6 percent unemployment rate cannot use the TFW program at all.
Marco Luciano of Migrante Canada said, “No new permits are being issued in food, retail and accommodation sector regions with unemployment greater than 6 percent, this has effectively locked workers already here in to their jobs greatly increasing the chances of exploitation.”
“Here in Manitoba, we have seen that strong regulatory protections against recruiters, and providing decent healthcare and labor protections results in better work for everyone,” said Diwa Marcelino of Migrante in Winnipeg.
In February, Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk for Employment, Workforce Development and Labour announced she will initiate a full-scale review of the TFW program stating that the changes made in 2014 were based on inaccurate employment data.
An estimated 83,740 temporary foreign workers entered Canada in 2013, or .44 percent of the total workforce.
In the last decade up to 2014, Philippines was the top source country for foreign workers, data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada show. There were some 38, 711 work permit holders from the Philippines in that year, down 4.7 percent from the year before.
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