But program can be a 'probation period' to find right fit
The temporary foreign worker program is heavily skewed to accommodate the needs of companies and is creating a “sub-class” of workers, according to a recent report from the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).
However, the Alberta government and industry groups claim the system has worked as planned to meet the demands of a tight labour market.
The province has seen a surge in foreign workers. In 2008, there were 57,843, an increase of 55 per cent from the previous year. However, the report Entrenching Exploitation claims low-skilled workers are charged exorbitant, illegal fees from brokers, live under constant threats of deportation and suffer widespread abuse of their rights at work, including a lack of overtime pay and altered wages.
“There are a lot of employers out there who are just bad employers and would rip anybody off if given half the chance,” said Yessy Byl, an Edmonton-based labour lawyer and advocate with the AFL. “Of course, they’re given a great chance with foreign workers.”
Ideally the temporary foreign worker program (TFWP) should go back to its roots, directed only at high-skilled workers, she said.
“Canadians are more and more educated — they don’t want to do those jobs. So who’s going to do them? And how are we going to avoid the same kinds of horrible racism issues, ghettoization issues — all those things that have occurred in Europe? We set up a system that plays right into that.”
But the program’s been a lifesaver for many properties across Alberta over the past several years, said David Kaiser, president of the Alberta Housing & Lodging Association based in Edmonton. There are about 1,200 temporary foreign workers in properties across the province, mostly working as housekeeping room attendants and food and beverage servers.
“I know that someone on the outside looking in might say, ‘Well, the industry is just looking for a cheap labour pool’ but the reality is there are some major costs in bringing in temporary foreign workers,” he said. “So, all things being equal, if you could hire domestically, you certainly would.”
Along with the application fees are the costs of transportation for a worker to fly into and out of Canada, and a worker is able to leave at anytime.
“It really speaks to the desperation of the industry to take that route,” said Kaiser.
About two years ago, the British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA) began to assist members in their efforts to recruit skilled tradespeople by navigating the various channels available to bring people into Canada. In the end, about 400 foreign workers were directly or indirectly placed through the TFWP, said Manley McLachlan, BCCA’s president and CEO in Victoria, B.C.
As for employment standards violations, most employers have a very good idea of what’s required, said McLachlan.
“In our experience, these (foreign workers) are not identified as being anything other than a regular employee. It’s usually a pretty sophisticated employer that recognizes the challenges of bringing people from offshore,” he said. “For the vast majority of companies we dealt with, there were no issues with individuals and the relationship with the employer.”
Government improvements
Last fall, Alberta launched a two-phase awareness campaign directed at foreign workers and employers. The government also provides assistance through booklets and an advisory hotline — which averages 200 to 500 calls each month — in a variety of languages. And the province has extended the settlement services offered to immigrants to temporary foreign workers as part of several pilot projects, said Jennifer Raimundo, Edmonton-based spokesperson for Alberta Employment and Immigration.
The province has also established two advisory offices and has six officers devoted to temporary foreign worker issues who conduct proactive inspections, a reasonable number considering foreign workers make up 2.5 per cent of Alberta’s population of two million, she said.
“We’re trying to educate employers as well and educating temporary foreign workers about their rights and responsibilities,” she said. “Most employers treat workers fairly, but there are some who are misunderstanding the rules or just not following the rules.”
But the AFL’s report said the advisory office and hotline, for example, lack adequate funding resources and have restrictive mandates, and enforcement officers can only do spot checks on the thousands of employers with foreign workers.
There are 58,000 temporary foreign workers in the province and Alberta has set a target of 4,000 for the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP). But many companies are reluctant to nominate an employee for permanent residency, said Byl. That’s because workers who obtain permanent status can move to work anywhere.
But employers will see higher retention amongst those who receive their AINP, she said, as it creates a certain amount of loyalty.
About 200 people in the hotel industry have gone on to obtain an AINP certificate and the program has worked really well in conjunction with the TFWP, said Kaiser.
“You’ve got essentially that probation period to find out if you’ve got the right fit on a long-term basis with the employee and the employer,” he said, adding that many employers consider the foreign workers they have to be among their key, core staff and “if they’re able to nominate them, they will.”
The TFWP dovetails with the AINP and is going to be critical in terms of recruitment for the industry in the long term, not just as a quick fix for a hot economy, said Kaiser.
“Looking into the future, we will be competing with other countries for workers,” he said. “We have a responsibility to ensure people who come to Canada are getting a very positive experience so others will want to follow.”
View from ottawa
Government committee calls for ‘pathway to permanent residency’
On May 6, the federal government released a report from the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration that looked at temporary foreign workers and non-status workers. After hearing from more than 100 witnesses, the committee said the temporary foreign worker program has “changed considerably from its roots as a focused program for rare instances of genuine labour market shortage.” Instead, for employers and workers, the program has become the faster and preferred way to get immigrants to Canada to meet long-term labour shortages.
“The expansion of the temporary foreign worker program represents a failure of the economic stream of immigration to bring in the type of workers needed and in a timely fashion,” said the committee. “There was widespread agreement that permanent immigration was more desirable and better for nation-building than using increasing numbers of temporary workers… We envision a pathway to permanent residency for all temporary foreign workers, a vision consistent with Canadian history and values.”
The report’s recommendations include:
• Each temporary foreign worker candidate attend an in-person orientation session in his country of origin prior to the work permit being issued, and that a non-governmental organization or non-profit settlement, counselling or advocacy agency regularly provide input to the orientation session.
• Temporary foreign workers be required, within three months of their arrival, to meet with an accredited non-governmental organization to follow up on labour legislation compliance.
• Monitoring teams be established to perform unannounced spot checks of working and housing conditions on temporary foreign worker job sites.
• An employer be denied future access to workers for a period of at least one year, and for a period of five years in repeated or egregious cases, if the employer violated provincial labour standards, the terms of an employment agreement or provincial recruitment provisions.
