Editor's Note: This is not a story
about union vs. non-union. It is not a story of evil intent.
Nor is it a story about profiteering. Although
it may reach into all of these realms, it is ultimately a story about indifference – of
how fellow workers can find themselves tolerating the intolerable.
The importing of foreign workers to Canada has always occurred
historically, yet the practice of granting foreign workers
temporary visas to complete short-term contract assignments
is a relatively new phenomenon, indicative of a much larger
global trend in employment. As Canada faces one of its largest
labor shortages in history, more and more employers (particularly
in the construction and skilled trades industries) are likely
to turn abroad to find workers to fill their positions.
To facilitate this, temporary foreign worker units have
been set up in Vancouver and Calgary - two Canadian cities
with “hot” economies - to provide advice to employers
who want to hire temporary foreign workers and need to expedite
the application process.
In BC alone, construction for the 2010 Olympics has placed
an estimated need for 40,000 more workers between now and
2011. Alberta faces the same issues as it struggles with
its own labour shortage. With unemployment at its lowest
level in 30 years, Albertan employees are finding that there
just aren’t enough people to fill jobs, particularly
in entry-level positions. Some employers are going so far
as to offer $500 signing bonuses and free trips to Mexico
to attract employees, and, in some locations, staff at McDonalds
are being paid $20 per hour. As employers come up with creative
solutions, and increase the rate of minimum pay, they are
also beginning to look increasingly at the option of hiring
temporary foreign workers.
The Wage Dispute
The federal government has made it clear that it
will do what it can to make it “easier and faster” to
import temporary foreign workers into the country to help
employers in specific industries and sectors.
Yet critics have already begun to accuse companies of exploiting
foreign workers by paying them lower, and in some cases,
insufficient,
wages. In BC, one specific allegation of worker exploitation
is under review by the BC Human Rights Tribunal and the Employment
Standards Branch, which has placed everything in a “state
of turmoil,” as Wayne Peppard, from the BC and Yukon
Building and Construction Trades council, wryly states.
The case in question came to the public attention two months
ago when, according to Peppard, a Canadian worker employed
on The Canada Line (a major construction project currently
occurring in Vancouver in preparation for the Olympics),
went to the union and voiced the concern that workers brought
in from Central America were being exploited by their employer.
Working alongside their Canadian counterparts, the 40 workers,
who came from Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador, were allegedly
being paid approximately $1000 (US), were required to work
60 hour weeks, while Canadian workers on the same job were
being paid $18-20 an hour.
Employed by an Italian-based Contractor, SELI Canada (a
subsidiary of the Canadian firm, SNC Lavalin), the foreign
workers were subsequently unionized and have been in collective
bargaining with their employer for the past two months.
“These are wild and serious allegations,” says
Steve Crombie, spokesman for InTransitBC, the company overseeing
the Canada Line construction. “And they are completely
unfounded.”
Crombie noted that the workers were already employees of
SELI, an internationally-based company that moves its workers
around the globe as it takes on different projects. “Their
employees are offered Inter-Company Transfer Visas,” Crombie
says. “These aren’t Canadian Visas. When the
project is over, their workers return home.”
While unions counter the argument that the Canadian economy
is experiencing an unprecedented labour shortage, Crombie
disagrees. “Anybody working in this industry knows
that it is becoming extremely more difficult to find local
labour. SELI ran advertisements for seven weeks and didn’t
get very many applicants. They also found that nobody had
the skill or the training to properly use the equipment.
So, of course, they wanted to use their own people.”
Canadian Law
According to Federal regulations, temporary work permits
may be issued to foreign workers as long as their salaries
are commensurate to Canadian standards, and that local
workers aren’t displaced out of a job.
Crombie notes that, because this is Canadian law, a company
like SELI had to comply in order to be able to bring in its
own employees. Otherwise, it would have been illegal. Yet
Peppard raises concern over the potential for public/private
contractors to be able to bring in foreign workers on contracts
that don’t comply with Canadian worker rights laws.
“This is a very complicated issue - perhaps larger
than anything this nation has faced,” says Peppard. “We
can’t have sub-standard contracts that undermine the
terms and conditions of Canadian contracts.” In most
instances, workers don’t know what their rights are,
and often sign contracts based on the fact that they will
be granted a Canadian visa. Once they arrive here then they
find that they are at the complete whim of their employer,
who can threaten to terminate employee visas if they voice
complaints about wages and living conditions. “There’s
nothing implemented to monitor these situations.”
Since allegations came public, SELI has contended that they
had planned to bring up the wages to Canadian standards all
along; they just didn’t know what those standards were.
Now, according to Peppard, these 40 foreign workers are earning
up to $10.70 an hour, a rate just above Canada’s minimum
wage requirements.
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