Claim they’re paid $4.50 an hour while Canadian workers make $20
A group of foreign workers in British Columbia have joined a Canadian union in what one immigration lawyer sees as a wake-up call for governments and employers looking to fill construction positions as Canada’s domestic labour supply dwindles.
“I think employers will be more leery about bringing in groups of workers,” said Zool Suleman, of Vancouver law firm Suleman and Co. “This isn’t a problem that’s going to go away. With our labour shortages, more and more we want to bring in large groups of workers. It’s an area that the federal and provincial governments need to work (on) to make sure there’s a seamless effective web of governance for these foreign workers.”
Italian tunnel-boring firm SELI brought about 45 Latin American workers to Vancouver to do tunnelling work for the Canada Line, a 19-kilometre rapid transit line that will connect the suburb of Richmond with Vancouver and the airport.
The Construction and Specialized Workers Union Local 1611 approached the workers, mostly from Costa Rica, Columbia and Ecuador, after it found out they were being paid about $4.50 an hour while their Canadian colleagues were earning $20 an hour.
“When a foreign worker comes to this country legally, they’re entitled to the same rights and protections as any Canadian worker,” said Kevin Blakely, the union’s lawyer. “If they’re not paid the local market rate, all it will serve to do is drive down labour rates. If we flood the market with cheap, foreign labour, there will be no market for Canadian labour.”
SELI initially advertised for the job in Canada last December and listed the wage as $18 to $21 an hour, but couldn’t fill all 40 jobs. To hire a foreign worker, a company must show that it can’t meet the need domestically and that the worker will receive wages comparable to Canadians in similar jobs. Approval from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, known as a positive labour market opinion, makes it very likely the foreign worker will get a work permit.
At the labour board hearings, held in July after the union was certified on June 30, SELI produced contracts in English stating the workers were hired at no less than $20,000 US a year tax-free. But Blakely strongly questions the contracts’ authenticity.
“If you talk to any one of these guys, they will tell you with absolute certainty that they did not get hired at $20,000 US a year, that they were hired at $1,100 US a month,” he said. He added the fact the contracts were in English was especially telling since most of the workers can’t speak or read English.
Blakely said the union has pay stubs proving the workers, who arrived in Canada at the end of April and beginning of May, were only paid $1,100 US ($1,250 Cdn) for the month of May. With the workers putting in 66-hour weeks, according to the union, that amounts to about $4.50 Cdn an hour.
Steve Crombie, vice-president of public affairs for InTransit BC, the private-public partnership that is in effect the project manager for the construction of the rapid transit line and that sub-contracted the tunnelling project to SELI, said he has seen the signed contracts himself.
“Each employee has a written contract that is signed by the employee and the company,” said Crombie. “When you take the package of the salary and all the benefits plus all the accommodation and all the meals, it’s comparable to what a local worker would get.”
Benefits include vacation pay, plus extended medical and dental. The company also gives each worker two round-trip plane tickets home and pays their room and board, an extra $2,250 Cdn a month by SELI’s estimate. The fact the salary is tax free is another important factor when compared to workers who are paying Canadian taxes, said Crombie.
Citing the workers’ pay stubs, Blakely disputes the company’s claim that it’s paying the workers $20,000 US a year. Even if the company adds the room and board to the calculation of wages, it is well below the market wage, said Blakely. He said the union has members working a similar tunnelling job on Vancouver’s north shore who are making between $8,000 and $10,000 a month (or $96,000 to $120,000 a year). Those who live outside the metropolitan area get a $75-a-day “living out” expense.
Whether or not the employer’s extras can be included in wages, thus making them compliant with the minimum employment standards, is up to the courts, said Blakely.
However, if the company wants the extras to be included in the wages, Blakely said it would be best to pay the $2,250 up front and let the workers get their own lodging and food.
“If you asked these Latin American workers whether they would rather live in a hotel and eat at a restaurant every day, or whether they would rather have $2,250 in their pocket every month, I think the answer would be abundantly clear,” he said. “Give these guys the $2,250 and let them do with it what they will.”
Immigration lawyer Suleman agrees. He said the Canada Line case is one of the first significant examples where a foreign worker’s contract must be examined to determine what they’re really being paid and what might be padding to help get the positive labour market opinion. When a contract states the worker is paid $3,000 a month, but only $1,000 of that is in cash, it’s hard to quantify how the remainder is spent, he said.
“How do you ascertain the value of the other $2,000? Is it real? Is it padded? We just don’t know,” he said.
All of the foreign workers on the Canada Line project have worked for SELI before. Some have been with the company for as long as 25 years, said Crombie.
“Keep in mind that most of the workers don’t speak English, so there’s a cultural barrier,” he said when asked why the company doesn’t pay out the room and board allowance.
The Construction Sector Council estimates that, over the next nine years, the industry will need about 191,000 new workers. In response to this prediction, the Canadian Construction Association asked the federal government to change immigration policy to make it easier to bring in skilled construction workers.
“I think employers will be more leery about bringing in groups of workers,” said Zool Suleman, of Vancouver law firm Suleman and Co. “This isn’t a problem that’s going to go away. With our labour shortages, more and more we want to bring in large groups of workers. It’s an area that the federal and provincial governments need to work (on) to make sure there’s a seamless effective web of governance for these foreign workers.”
Italian tunnel-boring firm SELI brought about 45 Latin American workers to Vancouver to do tunnelling work for the Canada Line, a 19-kilometre rapid transit line that will connect the suburb of Richmond with Vancouver and the airport.
The Construction and Specialized Workers Union Local 1611 approached the workers, mostly from Costa Rica, Columbia and Ecuador, after it found out they were being paid about $4.50 an hour while their Canadian colleagues were earning $20 an hour.
“When a foreign worker comes to this country legally, they’re entitled to the same rights and protections as any Canadian worker,” said Kevin Blakely, the union’s lawyer. “If they’re not paid the local market rate, all it will serve to do is drive down labour rates. If we flood the market with cheap, foreign labour, there will be no market for Canadian labour.”
SELI initially advertised for the job in Canada last December and listed the wage as $18 to $21 an hour, but couldn’t fill all 40 jobs. To hire a foreign worker, a company must show that it can’t meet the need domestically and that the worker will receive wages comparable to Canadians in similar jobs. Approval from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, known as a positive labour market opinion, makes it very likely the foreign worker will get a work permit.
At the labour board hearings, held in July after the union was certified on June 30, SELI produced contracts in English stating the workers were hired at no less than $20,000 US a year tax-free. But Blakely strongly questions the contracts’ authenticity.
“If you talk to any one of these guys, they will tell you with absolute certainty that they did not get hired at $20,000 US a year, that they were hired at $1,100 US a month,” he said. He added the fact the contracts were in English was especially telling since most of the workers can’t speak or read English.
Blakely said the union has pay stubs proving the workers, who arrived in Canada at the end of April and beginning of May, were only paid $1,100 US ($1,250 Cdn) for the month of May. With the workers putting in 66-hour weeks, according to the union, that amounts to about $4.50 Cdn an hour.
Steve Crombie, vice-president of public affairs for InTransit BC, the private-public partnership that is in effect the project manager for the construction of the rapid transit line and that sub-contracted the tunnelling project to SELI, said he has seen the signed contracts himself.
“Each employee has a written contract that is signed by the employee and the company,” said Crombie. “When you take the package of the salary and all the benefits plus all the accommodation and all the meals, it’s comparable to what a local worker would get.”
Benefits include vacation pay, plus extended medical and dental. The company also gives each worker two round-trip plane tickets home and pays their room and board, an extra $2,250 Cdn a month by SELI’s estimate. The fact the salary is tax free is another important factor when compared to workers who are paying Canadian taxes, said Crombie.
Citing the workers’ pay stubs, Blakely disputes the company’s claim that it’s paying the workers $20,000 US a year. Even if the company adds the room and board to the calculation of wages, it is well below the market wage, said Blakely. He said the union has members working a similar tunnelling job on Vancouver’s north shore who are making between $8,000 and $10,000 a month (or $96,000 to $120,000 a year). Those who live outside the metropolitan area get a $75-a-day “living out” expense.
Whether or not the employer’s extras can be included in wages, thus making them compliant with the minimum employment standards, is up to the courts, said Blakely.
However, if the company wants the extras to be included in the wages, Blakely said it would be best to pay the $2,250 up front and let the workers get their own lodging and food.
“If you asked these Latin American workers whether they would rather live in a hotel and eat at a restaurant every day, or whether they would rather have $2,250 in their pocket every month, I think the answer would be abundantly clear,” he said. “Give these guys the $2,250 and let them do with it what they will.”
Immigration lawyer Suleman agrees. He said the Canada Line case is one of the first significant examples where a foreign worker’s contract must be examined to determine what they’re really being paid and what might be padding to help get the positive labour market opinion. When a contract states the worker is paid $3,000 a month, but only $1,000 of that is in cash, it’s hard to quantify how the remainder is spent, he said.
“How do you ascertain the value of the other $2,000? Is it real? Is it padded? We just don’t know,” he said.
All of the foreign workers on the Canada Line project have worked for SELI before. Some have been with the company for as long as 25 years, said Crombie.
“Keep in mind that most of the workers don’t speak English, so there’s a cultural barrier,” he said when asked why the company doesn’t pay out the room and board allowance.
The Construction Sector Council estimates that, over the next nine years, the industry will need about 191,000 new workers. In response to this prediction, the Canadian Construction Association asked the federal government to change immigration policy to make it easier to bring in skilled construction workers.
