Un peu plus d’humanité pour les travailleurs étrangers

2023/06/28 Leave a comment

Along with reduced dependence on temporary workers and international students? And data on the number of visa overstays like in the USA:

Au cours des derniers jours, deux journalistes du Devoir ont donné un visage humain aux statistiques brutes de l’immigration temporaire et des migrants sans statut. Sarah R. Champagne et Lisa-Marie Gervais ont raconté les récits de Henry, Yony, Rudy, Yasser, Mariana et Mamadou.

Les premiers — des travailleurs étrangers temporaires — se sont blessés au travail et luttent non seulement pour leur rétablissement, mais aussi pour la défense de leurs droits dans un labyrinthe administratif aux allures de cul-de-sac. Les seconds — des sans-statut — sont arrivés chez nous par une voie régularisée, mais sont tombés ensuite dans le bassin des « sans-papiers » ; ils se battent pour survivre, mais dans la clandestinité. Derrière la froideur des chiffres, ce sont leurs vulnérabilités oubliées.

Tout notre système migratoire tourne autour de la notion convoitée de « résidence permanente ». La réforme que vient de mettre en marche la ministre de l’Immigration, Christine Fréchette, se décline autour de ce concept. Il s’agit là, répétons-le, d’une spectaculaire hypocrisie, car sous des cibles maintenant portées à 60 000 « permanents », la voie royale d’entrée au Québec est en fait « temporaire », et son caractère permanent ne se matérialisera jamais pour des milliers de personnes qui pourtant travaillent tous les jours à faire tourner notre économie.

En 2022, il y a eu près de trois fois plus d’immigrants entrés par une voie temporaire que de permanents recensés sur la même période de 11 mois. La véritable voie d’entrée au Québec est temporaire, mais on continue de traiter cette question comme si elle était secondaire, voire marginale. Québec n’a pas inclus la question des travailleurs étrangers temporaires dans sa récente réforme bien que ce fût réclamé à grands cris. Cette main-d’oeuvre scrutée sous le seul axe de son utilité, sans égards à son humanité, comptait pourtant pour près de 40 000 personnes au Québec en 2022.

C’est le triste paradoxe subi par ces dizaines de milliers de personnes jugées essentielles. Elles s’astreignent à un dur labeur depuis de longues années, loin de leur famille, mais elles accèdent rarement au statut convoité de la permanence, qui les sortirait d’un entre-deux accablant.

Puisque leur outil principal est leur corps, on ne s’étonnera pas d’apprendre que le nombre de lésions professionnelles subies par ces travailleurs est en augmentation galopante depuis quelques années, comme en font foi les données colligées par la Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST). Les histoires relatées par nos reporters montrent les limites douloureuses du statut de temporaire lorsque les travailleurs sont blessés ou malades : même s’ils ont accès à des soins de santé en bonne et due forme pendant qu’ils travaillent, ces services tiennent par le fil de l’emploi. Lorsque l’emploi se termine ou est interrompu, faute d’être en mesure d’offrir la prestation de travail, l’employé doit normalement quitter le Québec. Mais certaines incapacités ne le permettent tout simplement pas : un accident de travail qui demande une longue réadaptation ou un cancer qui nécessite un traitement, par exemple.

Ces précieux travailleurs se retrouvent souvent seuls dans l’épreuve, sans moyens pour permettre à leur famille restée dans leur pays d’origine de venir ne serait-ce que les visiter après une opération. Puisqu’ils ne peuvent plus travailler, ils perdent aussi le logis venant avec l’emploi qui leur garantit un statut. Dans certains cas, le pouvoir discrétionnaire du ministre de la Santé, qui peut étirer une couverture d’assurance maladie pour motifs humanitaires, viendra sauver la mise. Mais ces batailles administratives parfois sans issue viennent souligner le caractère inacceptable du traitement qu’on inflige à des gens qu’on dit indispensables : on préfère oublier leurs vulnérabilités, comme s’ils étaient des travailleurs de seconde zone. Voilà ce que le Québec leur offre en guise de remerciements.

Dans ces sombres conditions, ne nous étonnons pas que certains glissent dans la dernière des zones, celle de la clandestinité, en devenant des sans-papiers. C’est l’ultime repli — et le plus douloureux, car il force à une vie de cachette et d’illégalité.

Le Canada, dont on dit qu’il abriterait entre 80 000 et 500 000 sans-papiers, s’est engagé il y a 18 mois à lancer un programme de régularisation, qui pourrait en quelque sorte permettre de remettre les compteurs à zéro, comme ce fut fait déjà en 1973. La quantité de migrants sans statut est toutefois beaucoup plus importante qu’il y a 50 ans, ce qui pourrait compliquer la tâche des élus au moment de définir les critères du programme, qu’on attend toujours.

Le statu quo n’est pas possible. Tant le Canada que le Québec doivent composer avec cette population temporaire sans cesse croissante : eux seuls détiennent les clés qui permettront d’ouvrir la voie à des statuts dotés d’un peu plus d’humanité.

Source: Un peu plus d’humanité pour les travailleurs étrangers

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Globe Editorial – Immigration: Canada’s economy can’t rely on temporary workers and study permits forever

2023/06/09 Leave a comment

The Globe continues its shift towards being more critical of Canadian immigration policies and distancing itself from Century Initiative and other large scale immigration advoccates:

Canada has big, enduring demographic challenges ahead. So why are we trying to paper them over with ever-larger temporary band-aids?

…

Source: Immigration: Canada’s economy can’t rely on temporary workers and study permits forever

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Globe editorial: Canada’s much-touted labour shortage is mostly a mirage

2023/06/03 Leave a comment

Good to see some serious (and belated) questioning by the Globe. Unlikely that the government will change its approach of appeasing business and other interests rather than focussing on medium- and longer-term impacts on productivity:

No one takes orders at the Burger King in the rest stop off of Ontario’s Highway 401 near Port Hope. Instead, there’s a large touch screen that customers use to select and pay for their Whoppers and fries.

…

Source: Canada’s much-touted labour shortage is mostly a mirage

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Connelly: Even high-wage temporary foreign workers are at risk of exploitation

2023/06/03 Leave a comment

Haven’t seen much written one the higher-wage Temporary Foreign Workers or the kind of anecdotes and studies that we see on agricultural and other lower-wage workers.

So the extent to which this is more theoretical (same general points apply to all TFWs), or a real issue is unclear (and Connelly doesn’t indicate that any surveys or other assessment of on-the-ground reality was undertaken which may have been included in her book):

When we think of temporary foreign workers, we usually think of agricultural workers and nannies: vulnerable workers at risk of exploitation. But not every temporary foreign worker does this kind of work. What about software engineers, accountants, and technicians? Unfortunately, they are also at risk.

Many Canadians assume that high-wage temporary foreign workers are less vulnerable because they have more resources at their disposal. But their high incomes and education levels are not enough to protect them.

Temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream are vulnerable to exploitation because they have closed work permits. With only a few exceptions, they are only allowed to work for the company that hired them. Even when they are aware of their employment rights, they are often reluctant to do anything that they believe could jeopardize their employment, such as complaining to their boss, their HR department, or the government. Most high-wage temporary foreign workers are hoping to apply for permanent residency through a provincial nominee program, and they are concerned that any complaints will be held against them. And even though many high-wage temporary foreign workers eventually become permanent residents, they still have closed work permits while they navigate this process. And in the meantime, they may endure a lot.

High-wage temporary foreign workers are lucrative targets. Because their wages are relatively high, unscrupulous companies have a financial incentive to pay them less than their contracted wage. For example, instead of paying them the agreed-upon $30 per hour, a company may decide to only pay them only $27 per hour: a 10 per cent discrepancy. This pay cut of course violates the temporary foreign worker guidelines, which stipulate that all temporary foreign workers must be paid the agreed-upon wage for the duration of their contracts. They also must be paid at least the local median wage for their occupation.

Three dollars in wage theft may not sound like much, but it adds up. If that employee works 40 hours per week, this represents a savings to the employer of about $6,240 per year, per employee.

Because high-wage workers are so qualified, they are frequently asked to perform extra tasks that are not in their contracts. For example, they may be asked to manage a team or take on more important or complicated responsibilities with less supervision. Many temporary foreign workers are overqualified for their positions, so some companies use this as an opportunity to require them to do extra work without compensation, even though this violates the rules of the temporary foreign worker program.

Companies that have difficulty retaining Canadians because of poor management skills may turn to temporary foreign workers specifically to lower rates of staff turnover. While Canadians and foreign workers recruited through the International Mobility Program (e.g., from a country that has a free trade agreement with Canada) can quit, high-wage temporary foreign workers, who might be doing the exact same job, do not have the same options. In addition to wage theft and unrealistic performance expectations, high-wage temporary foreign workers frequently have to deal with abusive supervisors. 

The solution is to harmonize the high-wage temporary foreign worker program with the International Mobility Program to ensure that these workers all have the same rights. That is, high-wage temporary foreign workers would receive open work permits that would enable them to change employers more easily. A further advantage of open permits is that companies could then promote high-wage temporary foreign workers, or move them to where they are needed.

One could argue that open permits would be inconvenient for employers, because mistreated high-wage temporary foreign workers may quit if their work permits do not force them to stay with their employer. However, employers could adopt the same management strategies that they use to prevent their Canadian or International Mobility Program employees from quitting: careful recruitment, fair treatment, and reasonable wages.

In discussions about temporary foreign workers, those in the high-wage stream are often overlooked. There are not so many of them: only 45,867 were approved to come to Canada in 2022. But as Canadian companies address ongoing labour market challenges, more are likely to be hired. High-wage temporary foreign workers are an important part of the Canadian workforce, and they need the same protections as Canadians.

Catherine Connelly is a Canada Research Chair in organizational behaviour at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, and the author of Enduring Work: Experiences with Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Source: Even high-wage temporary foreign workers are at risk of exploitation

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Les immigrants temporaires ne feront pas partie des discussions de Québec

2023/05/06 Leave a comment

Seems similar blind spot to the federal government consultations on the annual plan that doesn’t include temporary residents even if the numbers and arguably impact greater than Permanent Residents:

Reconnaissant que près de 300 000 immigrants non permanents se trouvaient en sol québécois à la fin de 2022, la ministre de l’Immigration, Christine Fréchette, refuse toutefois d’inclure la question des immigrants temporaires dans sa consultation sur les cibles cet automne.

Talonnant Mme Fréchette sur le sujet lors de l’étude des crédits de son ministère, le député solidaire de Saint-Henri–Saint-Anne, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, a sommé le gouvernement d’aborder le sujet lors de ses consultations sur les cibles d’immigration 2024-2027. « On a aucune consultation sur les temporaires, je vous demande un engagement pour qu’on puisse faire une planification ordonnée réglée ensemble et qu’on sache où on s’en va. De faire uniquement l’exercice sur les permanents, c’est de passer à côté du débat », a-t-il souligné.

Le député libéral de Nelligan, Monsef Derraji, a renchéri en faisant valoir que la majorité des travailleurs temporaires s’installaient dans la région de Montréal. « On ne peut pas dire qu’on peut juste tenir compte des permanents dans la planification pluriannuelle », a-t-il lancé.

Selon des documents rendus publics dans le cadre de l’étude des crédits, il y avait environ 290 000 immigrants temporaires en territoire québécois au 31 décembre 2022, surtout des étudiants étrangers et des travailleurs temporaires.

La ministre Fréchette a pour sa part rétorqué que ce type d’immigration reflète le besoin ponctuel des entreprises et estime important que ces dernières gardent cette « agilité » pour aller « chercher les talents dont elles ont besoin ». « L’immigration temporaire, c’est [aussi] l’effet du succès de nos établissements d’enseignement », a-t-elle ajouté. « Pour nous, d’office, ça fait partie des éléments, car on y fait référence, mais pour ce qui est des orientations comme telles, la planification pluriannuelle porte sur l’immigration permanente. »

Déplorant que des travailleurs étrangers temporaires soient pris en otage en raison de permis « fermés » qui les lient à un donneur d’emploi en particulier, le député Monsef Derraji a tenté d’obtenir de la ministre qu’elle s’engage à éliminer ces documents qui conduisent parfois à des abus de la part des employeurs. Christine Fréchette a répondu qu’il s’agissait d’une question dont elle discute déjà avec son homologue fédéral, Sean Fraser. Elle a par ailleurs rappelé que son gouvernement souhaite rapatrier les pouvoirs des programmes concernant les travailleurs temporaires gérés par Ottawa.

Davantage d’immigrants francisés

Malgré des taux de décrochage parfois élevés dans certaines régions, la ministre de l’Immigration s’est également félicitée du progrès de la persévérance des immigrants en francisation dans l’ensemble du Québec.

Préférant voir les choses du côté positif, Christine Fréchette dit observer des taux de persévérance de 78,8 % pour les étudiants à temps complet et 84,6 % pour les étudiants à temps partiel. « C’est franchement un beau succès. […] On a augmenté considérablement le nombre de personnes qui prennent des cours de francisation ».

Lors de l’étude des crédits, le député Derraji lui a fait valoir que près de la moitié des immigrants en francisation décrochent dans certaines régions administratives, notamment en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, où ce taux atteint 43 %. À Montréal, il est près de 25 %. « Ce n’est pas du tout un échec, on partait de zéro. On a tellement rebâti en 2018 », a répondu la ministre Fréchette. Selon les documents du ministère, le décrochage est moins élevé chez élèves à temps partiel, soit environ 15 % pour l’ensemble du Québec.

Pressée d’expliquer pourquoi certains immigrants décrochent de la francisation, elle a noté que, dans un contexte de plein-emploi, beaucoup peuvent être tentés par le marché du travail. « Quand on prend des cours de francisation, on peut être rapidement sollicité pour intégrer des entreprises ou travailler davantage d’heures si on a déjà un emploi », a-t-elle affirmé.

Quant aux immigrants temporaires, la ministre a précisé que la majorité d’entre eux (60 %) parle français et, qu’au cours de la dernière année, il y a eu une augmentation de plus de 30 % des travailleurs étrangers temporaires qui ont suivi des cours de français. « C’est colossal », a-t-elle déclaré.

Or, bien que les allocations s’étendent désormais aux milliers de travailleurs temporaires agricoles, à peine 431 d’entre eux se sont inscrits à la francisation. La ministre Fréchette a dit vouloir augmenter ce score. « La francisation est un travail constant, il y aura toujours des efforts à faire pour que l’apprentissage du français soit facilité et accessible. » Elle entend miser sur de nouveaux outils, dont Francisation Québec, un guichet unique qui sera lancé dès le 1er juin et qui regroupera toute l’offre de services en francisation.

Pas fermée à la régularisation

Par ailleurs, questionnée à savoir si son ministère allait emboîter le pas au fédéral, qui planche sur un programme de régularisation des personnes sans statut, Christine Fréchette a dit ne pas fermer pas la porte. « Mais il faut voir davantage les intentions pour décider si on s’y engage ou pas », a-t-elle souligné.

La ministre a d’ailleurs affirmé qu’il était « encore trop tôt pour se prononcer » sur cette question. « C’est important pour nous de connaître la nature des orientations [du fédéral]. On souhaite être consultés sur cette politique publique. »

Source: Les immigrants temporaires ne feront pas partie des discussions de Québec

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Temporary foreign worker program must have open work permits

2023/05/03 Leave a comment

A more modest proposal than permanent status for all but unlikely given some business community opposition:

If your boss asked you to pay him $1,000 in cash to keep your job, expected you to work without safety equipment or holiday pay, or told you to sleep on the floor in the apartment he was renting to you … you would probably quit. I hope you would.

But if you are a temporary foreign worker this may not feel like an option for you.

The Canadian temporary foreign worker program continues to grow, as companies grapple with labour shortages in many sectors. Last year an estimated 220,000 temporary foreign workers came to Canada and this number is likely to be even higher next year as the federal government relaxes restrictions on the program.

Will the number of abuses increase too? Probably, unless we change the way the program is administered.

The biggest problem right now is closed work permits. Temporary foreign workers must stay with the employer who hires them. If temporary foreign workers quit or are fired they can only work for a new employer who happens to have an unfilled labour market impact assessment (LMIA), or they have to return home. And because temporary foreign workers all have closed work permits, they sometimes endure working conditions that Canadian employees would walk away from.

Open work permits, in contrast, would give temporary foreign workers the same flexibility that Canadians take for granted. Open work permits would allow them to quit a job that is abusive and move to any other employer that will hire them. Interestingly, open work permits are already offered to temporary foreign workers who can demonstrate that they are being mistreated. But at that point the abuse has already happened. And many temporary foreign workers are reluctant to report abusive employers because they are (mistakenly) worried about jeopardizing their future chances to apply for permanent residency. 

Open work permits are also more flexible for employers. With one, a temporary foreign worker can be promoted easily or moved to where they are needed most within an organization, especially as they gain more experience and their skills improve. Companies’ needs change quickly, and this flexibility can be crucial in a competitive environment. Some temporary foreign workers could even work at a second part-time, short-term, or seasonal job, if they wanted.

To be sure, some advocacy groups would argue that we should immediately grant citizenship or permanent residency to all temporary foreign workers as soon as they arrive in Canada. However, the amount of bureaucracy involved would also increase dramatically, slowing down a process that is already very cumbersome. When companies are hiring workers they usually need someone immediately. Temporary foreign workers who are seeking work also need to be able to work as soon as possible.

Granting immediate permanent residency to all temporary foreign workers would also give the companies that use the temporary foreign worker program, such as slaughterhouses and fast-food restaurant chains, much greater involvement in deciding who immigrates to Canada. Most Canadians would not be comfortable with more corporate involvement in Canadian immigration decisions.

Of course, with open work permits some companies might complain that their investment — the worker they just recruited — will walk out the door. Temporary foreign workers are more expensive and time consuming to recruit than Canadians. Companies pay $1,000 just to apply for a LMIA that enables them to recruit temporary foreign workers, and they may also have to pay for the worker’s transportation or housing costs. 

However, the risk of their new worker leaving is the incentive for companies to treat their temporary foreign workers well. Companies should not choose workers just because they cannot quit. 

Every few weeks we hear about more temporary foreign workers being exploited or mistreated. The government continues to tinker with the temporary foreign worker program, so these abuses continue. Open work permits would enable these workers to walk away from bad jobs, just like any Canadian.

Catherine Connelly is a Canada Research Chair in organizational behaviour at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and the author of “Enduring Work: Experiences with Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.”

Source: Temporary foreign worker program must have open work permits

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Paradkar: Dear immigrants: Coming to Canada? Here’s what you’re really in for

2023/04/15 Leave a comment

While a bit overboard, all too accurate given the various changes to ease business restrictions on temporary worker permits and limits on employment time for international students:

Hello, new immigrants. Most of you are likely coming to Canada in search of a better life and better opportunities than in the lands you leave behind. The good news is that many of you will find a job. Some of you will even be well-paid. But more than a few will find your dreams of stability and comfort seriously challenged.

For those who take on the vast majority of jobs Ontario is looking to fill — in restaurants and in bars, in truck transportation, construction, nursing homes — you’ll first have to survive the savageries of capitalism and xenophobia.

As Canada opens its doors to half a million immigrants annually — about half of whom will land in Ontario — we say welcome, today’s newcomers. But do you know what you’re in for?

Canada has historically benefitted from immigration. Many immigrants, particularly higher skilled ones, have also benefitted by coming here. But this round of gate-opening reveals the truth about Canada’s economic immigration policy. It’s designed in the interest of a stronger economy, which serves, first and foremost, not the majority of immigrants, who will be channelled into unskilled, often temporary jobs, but those at the top.

What Canada wants, but is not saying out loud, is a servant class; a vast army of workers prepared to accept the low-paid jobs no one else wants. And given how the economy is structured along with our poor preparedness to receive these newcomers, it’s clear we want to keep them in that position.

The current immigration push continues a centuries-old tradition of worker exploitation in the Americas. When European settler attempts to enslave Indigenous populations failed for various reasons, indentured servants arrived in the 1600s to care for the vast lands the earliest settlers had got, bought or stole.

Then came chattel slavery, itself created because the elite capitalists realized free labour by commodifying humans kidnapped from afar was more profitable than cheap wage labour.

When, some 200 years later, Britain abolished slavery in most of its colonies in the 1830s, this continent experienced a “labour shortage,” like the one today. That led to Britain importing indentured or bonded labour from colonies such as India, particularly on its plantation islands.

Then, as today, “labour shortage” didn’t mean there was a lack of human bodies to do jobs that build societies. Nor did it mean there was a lack of skills to do them. Then, as today, it meant something about the shifting dynamics of demand and supply.

A higher demand for labour shifts power toward workers, who agitate for better wages and working conditions. Flooding the market with a supply of workers swings that shift in power back to the owning class.

Today’s immigration push comes with baked-in economic disenfranchisement. Temporary work in precarious jobs leaves workers vulnerable to abusive working conditions.

Much like the West Indian Domestic Scheme of the 1950s and ’60s, when Canada sought Black Caribbeans to be domestic workers, the floodgates are opening today through initiatives such as the Temporary Youth Worker Program and the Federal Skilled Trades program, and via colleges and universities, which are taking increasing numbers of international students.

According to Statistics Canada, a vast majority of Ontario’s job vacancies right now — 60 per cent — require a high school graduation or less, many needing less than one year of experience.

The Federal Skilled Trades program doesn’t require candidates to have secondary education but it will prioritize those with a certificate or diploma or degree. That means many economic migrants will be overqualified for the jobs being asked of them, but they will come, perhaps hoping they’re at least getting a foot in the door.

Once in, however, these immigrants will have been slotted into the jobs Canadians won’t do for the wages being offered.

The overt racists and xenophobes also grease the wheels of this exploitative system.

If employers see labour as robotic capital-making units, xenophobes, easily made insecure by “outsiders,” keep immigrants bracing for attacks on their very existence, leaving them grateful for the crumbs, told their deplorable circumstances are a result of their not working hard enough or their supposed inferiority.

The economy is structurally built to see full employment — everyone having a job — as a problem.

A seventh straight month of job gains and near-record-low unemployment of five per cent is leading economists to predict that the Bank of Canada might well raise already high interest rates in coming months to “cool the economy” and inflation.

In this way of thinking, rising wages for, say, an average grocery worker in Canada, who earned $18.97 per hour in 2022 is a threat to the economy. But grocery magnate Galen Weston earning $5,679 an hour is not.

This thinking is why employers freely blamed programs such as Canada Emergency Response Benefit — that offered about $500 a week to those who lost income due to COVID — for “spoiling” workers.

Far better to call a person earning $500 a week, and not wanting to work for less than that bare minimum, lazy than pay them higher wages.

Perhaps the new immigrants coming in to rescue our economy, including those who have to remain jobless in service of this country, might be thanked in other ways? Maybe they’ll be housed relatively easily? Not have to worry about finding good schools for their children? Or have a safety net should they fall ill?

No such luck. Provincial parsimoniousness has already extended to defunding education, defunding health care and not building enough or affordable houses on land already earmarked for homes.

Politicians and their owning class friends are eyeing for-profit education and for-profit health care once the current systems are squeezed to the point of hopelessness. Large developers, quite coincidentally, bought precisely those thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive and protected Greenbelt land that Ontario’s premier opened up to build housing.

Yes, developers will need construction workers willing to work for less than a decent wage, if they hope to pad their profits. Instability in foreign lands fostering desperation can be a wonderful boon.The very rich benefit mightily from boosted immigration in other ways, too. More people means more consumers and buying food is non-negotiable. Ka-ching, that sound of cascading coins, is an inadequate metaphor to capture the surge in sums of money for people like Weston, whose family’s net worth is about $8 billion US.

We — as a nation — either need to be better prepared to receive newcomers or, failing that, be honest and say: Welcome, newcomers — welcome to your new life of multi-dimensional suffering.

Source: Dear immigrants: Coming to Canada? Here’s what you’re really in for

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Temporary Foreign Worker program sees 68% jump in approvals 

2023/04/01 Leave a comment

The absence of temporary residents from the annual departmental immigration plan becomes more and more untenable given how temporary workers and students form a larger number than new Permanent Residents, particularly given the impact on housing availability and affordability, healthcare and infrastructure:

Employers in Canada were approved to fill more than 220,000 positions through the Temporary Foreign Worker program last year, taking advantage of government decisions that broadened access to migrant labour.

TFW approvals jumped 68 per cent from 2021, according to a Globe and Mail analysis of figures recently published by Employment and Social Development Canada. Over the final three months of 2022, companies were authorized to hire nearly 69,000 positions through the TFW program – the most in a quarter since at least 2017.

The numbers reflect part of the hiring process: Foreign workers still need to get the appropriate permits to fill those positions.

Even so, the ESDC figures show that employer demand for temporary foreign labour is soaring at a time of near-record-low unemployment rates and elevated job vacancies.

Companies also benefited from an overhaul of the TFW program last spring, when the federal government increased employers’ access to low-wage labour, among other changes.

As businesses rush to use the TFW program, Canada is experiencing the largest population gains in decades. The country grew by slightly more than one million people in 2022, a 2.7-per-cent increase that was the most since 1957, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

Temporary immigration was the primary driver of growth. In 2022, the number of non-permanent residents jumped by around 600,000 on a net basis, a record increase. This group includes international students, along with those temporary workers whose permits are issued outside of the TFW program.

In its report, Statscan said the federal government is deliberately courting more immigrants to boost the supply of labour as the country ages. However, the agency also noted: “A rise in the number of permanent and temporary immigrants could also represent additional challenges for some regions of the country related to housing, infrastructure and transportation, and service delivery to the population.”

In the fourth quarter, farms and food-processing plants were the largest sources of TFW approvals, which is usually the case. Over all, nearly 25,000 roles as general farm workers were authorized to be filled. Procyk Farms Ltd., of Wilsonville, Ont., received 599 approvals in the quarter, the most of any company.

Collectively, the restaurant industry was approved to hire thousands of people, including more than 3,100 cooks. Those employers included franchisees of Tim Hortons and McDonald’s Corp.

Other high-demand roles included truck drivers, construction workers and nurse aides.

The federal government said the expansion of the TFW program was meant to address a shortage of workers, something that companies have openly complained about for years.

In one of last year’s changes, companies are now able to employ 20 per cent of their staff through the low-wage stream of the TFW program, up from a previous 10-per-cent cap for most employers. In seven sectors with “demonstrated labour shortages,” such as restaurants and construction, the limit was temporarily set to 30 per cent. Earlier this week, Ottawa extended the 30-per-cent cap until late October.

However, many economists have criticized those moves, saying it helps companies avoid paying higher wages, and that it could lead to the exploitation of migrant workers, whose immigration status is tied to their employer.

“Unfortunately, we increasingly have a system where our temporary and permanent immigration systems are focused on the same objective – satisfying employers’ current labour needs,” economists Parisa Mahboubi and Mikal Skuterud wrote in a recent memo for the C.D. Howe Institute. “The risk is that the overall immigration system fails to do anything well.”

To hire a TFW, a company must submit a Labour Market Impact Assessment to the federal government, showing that they can’t find local workers to fill their open jobs. The ESDC figures refer to the number of roles that received positive assessments.

Most temporary foreign workers in Canada are not employed through the TFW program. At the end of 2022, there were more than one million active work permits in the International Mobility Program. This group includes a range of workers, such as company transfers from abroad. IMP permits have jumped by 193 per cent over the previous decade.

International students, who mostly don’t need work permits to secure employment in Canada, are a rapidly growing part of the labour force. At the end of last year, there were slightly more than 800,000 active study permits – nearly triple the volume from 10 years earlier.

Source: Temporary Foreign Worker program sees 68% jump in approvals

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‘Scumbag’ Ontario employers to be slapped with hefty new fines for withholding workers’ passports, vows labour minister

2023/03/22 Leave a comment

Good, but the proof will lie with enforcement or lack thereof. The decline in inspections over the last five years is not an encouraging sign:

Ontario employers who withhold vulnerable foreign workers’ passports will face stiff penalties under proposed new labour laws that aim to introduce the highest maximum fines in the country.

If passed, the legislation to be introduced Monday would result in penalties of $100,000 to $200,000 for each passport withheld from a worker — a significant leap from the current fines, which range from just $250 to $1000.

“It’s totally disgusting that any human being would ever be treated the way we see sometimes,” Labour Minister Monte McNaughton told the Star. “Which is why I’ve made this a top priority for myself and for our ministry.”

The proposed reforms would mean if employers are convicted of retaining documents for multiple workers, they could face cumulative fines ranging into the millions.

Withholding foreign nationals’ travel documents is already illegal under provincial employment laws, but heftier fines are “one piece of the puzzle” in a ministry crackdown on labour trafficking, McNaughton said.

Withholding workers’ travel documents is illegal — and widespread, advocates say

The new legislation comes in the wake of several recent labour exploitation cases that have resulted in criminal prosecutions. Earlier this month, York Regional Police announced it had identified 64 Mexican nationals who had been forced to live and work in “deplorable” conditions. Police have laid charges against the workers’ alleged abusers under human trafficking laws.

In that example, the labour ministry’s new penalty framework would also allow inspectors to slap recruiters with fines of up to $6.4 million for withholding passports, said McNaughton.

While retaining workers’ travel documents is coercive and illegal, advocates have long said the practice is widespread — and called for more proactive inspections to prevent violations of the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (EPFNA).

“The profound weakness of the legislation is that it depends upon individual workers to bring forward complaints,” notes a 2016 report authored by lawyer and migrant labour expert Fay Faraday.

Last year, the ministry investigated 189 claims under EPFNA, uncovered 25 violations and identified more than $100,000 of unpaid entitlements owed to workers.

Inspections down dramatically since 2017

Ministry of Labour data shows the number of inspections conducted to identifyoverall workplace violations such as wage theft has dropped significantly in recent years, from 3,500 in 2017 to 215 last year.

The number of prosecutions for employment standards violations also dropped to 34 from 233 over the same time period.

In a statement, the ministry said its employment standards officers have supported the government’s pandemic response over the past two years, including “providing essential businesses with compliance assistance” and enforcing lockdown regulations.

“While the number of inspections the ministry has been able to complete has been impacted by the pandemic, we have continued to investigate every claim and review every complaint reported to us.”

Labour minister’s focus is on cracking down on ‘scumbags’

McNaughton said the proposed new fines will complement the ministry’s new anti-trafficking unit that has so far initiated 45 investigations and recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for over 3,500 workers.

“I know the changes will only work if you catch these scumbags,” he said. “My focus is cracking down on the bad guys who are breaking the law, and my goal is to fine them as much as possible.”

In addition to facing so-called administrative penalties for withholding travel documents, individuals who are prosecuted in court under the proposed labour reforms could face additional penalties of up to $500,000 or a year of jail — up from the current maximum fine of $50,000. Corporations would be liable for penalties of up to $1 million.

With labour exploitation attracting growing attention, the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change has said it believes the labour ministry is the right body to lead enforcement activities. The advocacy group has raised concern about the involvement of police and border authorities, particularly where vulnerable workers are at risk of deportation.

Proposed legislation includes higher fines, expanded worker protections

Other changes to be introduced Monday include higher fines for corporations convicted of health and safety violations, raising fines to $2 million from $1.5 million.

The move follows an increase in maximum fines for individuals who break workplace safety laws, brought in last year.

The proposed new legislation will also contain a number of other initiatives recently announced by the ministry, including expanded cancer coverage for firefighters at the workers’ compensation board and protections for remote workers during mass terminations.

Source: ‘Scumbag’ Ontario employers to be slapped with hefty new fines for withholding workers’ passports, vows labour minister

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Dutrisac: La vulnérabilité perpétuée par le système (Temporary Foreign Workers and closed work permits)

2023/01/27 Leave a comment

Of note::

Le nombre d’immigrants temporaires a explosé au Québec, tout comme dans le reste du Canada d’ailleurs. Et parmi eux, des travailleurs étrangers à bas salaire, qu’ils se trouvent dans les entrepôts ou dans les champs, sont à la merci d’employeurs sans scrupule.

Discuter d’un seuil de 50 000 immigrants reçus, le chiffre programmé par le gouvernement Legault, c’est discourir sur un portrait bien partiel de l’immigration au Québec. Comme l’a rapporté Le Devoir récemment, ce seuil est largement dépassé par l’afflux d’immigrants temporaires. Ainsi, le nombre de ressortissants étrangers détenteurs de permis de travail et d’études présents sur le territoire québécois dépassait les 180 000 en 2022. En tout, selon l’Institut de la statistique du Québec, au 1er juillet dernier, on comptait 290 000 résidents non permanents, toutes catégories confondues. Ce nombre a presque doublé en dix ans.

Le gouvernement caquiste n’en a que pour les professionnels et les travailleurs qualifiés, réunis sous le vocable d’immigration économique et commandant les hauts salaires que favorise François Legault. Il en faut, de cette main-d’oeuvre bien formée que recherchent des employeurs aux prises avec des difficultés de recrutement.

Mais on ne saurait occulter le fait que le Québec a aussi besoin de travailleurs sans grandes études, disposés à prendre des emplois dont les Québécois ne veulent pas et à se contenter des bas salaires qui vont avec. Des emplois ingrats, souvent exigeants physiquement, qui représentent pourtant un rouage important de l’économie. On parle de manoeuvres, de manutentionnaires, de préposés à l’entretien, d’ouvriers dans des usines de transformation alimentaire, de travailleurs agricoles.

Depuis 2015, la main-d’oeuvre recrutée par les entreprises québécoises par le truchement du Programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires (PTET) a plus que triplé pour atteindre les 34 000 personnes.

Quelles que soient leurs compétences, les travailleurs étrangers temporaires, s’ils veulent prolonger leur présence au pays, ce qui, souvent, est aussi le souhait de leur employeur, doivent renouveler leur permis de travail, une démarche souvent angoissante compte tenu de l’incurie administrative des autorités fédérales. Certains de ces immigrants sont ici pour trois ans, cinq ans, dix ans même. C’est la grande hypocrisie du système : de nombreux travailleurs temporaires occupent des postes permanents. Plusieurs souhaitent immigrer au Québec.

Contrairement aux étudiants et aux personnes admissibles au Programme fédéral de mobilité internationale, les travailleurs peu qualifiés recrutés par le PTET ne disposent pas d’un permis de travail ouvert, mais d’un permis « fermé » qui lie leur présence au Québec à un employeur unique. Ils sont placés dans une situation de vulnérabilité qui les expose à des abus et à une exploitation éhontée de la part d’employeurs. Ces travailleurs hésitent à porter plainte de crainte de perdre leur emploi et de se voir forcer de retourner dans leur pays, ce dont on les menace, d’ailleurs.

C’est ce genre de situations que montre l’enquête Essentiels. La face cachée de l’immigration, un documentaire présenté à Télé-Québec, réalisé par Ky Vy Le Duc et signé par la militante Sonia Djelidi et la journaliste du Devoir Sarah R. Champagne. On constate que des travailleurs agricoles ont été forcés de s’échiner dans les champs jusqu’à 17 heures par jour et qu’ils ont passé plusieurs semaines sans prendre une seule journée de congé. Logés sur la ferme, ils doivent s’entasser dans des baraques exiguës et invivables qu’on dit conformes aux normes fédérales. On y voit des travailleuses immigrantes se faire exploiter par une agence de placement sans permis. Ou encore ce travailleur qui est employé depuis dix ans par les serres Savoura et qui n’a vu sa famille, restée au Guatemala, que trois mois et demi pendant la décennie, ne réussissant pas à obtenir un certificat de sélection du Québec.

Contrairement à la Charte canadienne, la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés protège les étrangers. Il faudrait s’en souvenir. Se rappeler aussi que les normes minimales de travail, c’est pour eux aussi. Sur la ferme, Québec peut remédier à la discrimination perpétuée par Ottawa et leur garantir un hébergement digne de ce nom, sujet aux mêmes normes qui régissent l’hébergement fourni par les employeurs aux travailleurs québécois.

Pour que cessent les abus et les mauvais traitements dont les travailleurs étrangers sont l’objet, les permis fermés devraient être abolis et remplacés par des permis ouverts liés à un secteur d’activité et possiblement à une région. Ces changements essentiels dépendent malheureusement de la bonne volonté du gouvernement fédéral. C’est Québec qui devrait se charger des travailleurs étrangers temporaires sur notre territoire, ce que prévoyait l’entente Canada-Québec sur l’immigration. S’assurer du respect de la dignité de tout travailleur en sol québécois, c’est en somme sa responsabilité.

Source: La vulnérabilité perpétuée par le système

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