Netherlands

Polski Strajk: first strike amongst temporary workers, mainly Polish migrant workers, in AH and Jumbo distribution centres

Saturday 2 August 2025, by John Cozijn


Since 25th June, approximately 150 temporary workers, mainly Polish migrant workers, have been on strike at the logistic platforms of Albert Heijn [major Dutch supermarket chain] to protest against the "sham collective agreement" and demand equal pay and treatment. [1] The strike began simultaneously at the distribution centres in Pijnacker and Geldermalsen, then quickly spread to Zwolle and Tilburg.


On Monday 14th July, the strike extended to several Jumbo [second-largest Dutch supermarket chain] distribution centres. The number of strikers rose to approximately three hundred. After three weeks, the strike was temporarily suspended to allow for expansion of the movement. Additionally, it was imposed that consultation with the ABU [General Association of Temporary Employment Agencies] and the NBBU [Dutch Association of Mediation and Temporary Employment Agencies] would take place at the end of August to discuss a proper collective agreement, one of the demands.

For Karin Heynsdijk, leader of the FNV Flex union [Dutch trade union federation for flexible workers]: "These past weeks, something that no one would have believed possible has happened: temporary workers, almost all migrant workers, have mobilised to defend their rights. Despite intimidation from temporary employment agencies, despite their precarious position in the labour market and despite the financial risks they face."

"This is the first time that temporary workers have decided on their own to go on strike, and what’s more, they are all immigrants," declares Cihan Ugural, FNV trade unionist.

The strike was organised by the strikers themselves, with support from the FNV Flex union. Paulina Nietupska is one of the strike leaders. She has worked for nine years as a temporary worker at the Albert Heijn distribution centre in Tilburg. "People must wake up. We are not slaves. We pay our taxes here, we send our children to school here and we come to live here. We are like the Dutch."
Against the "sham collective agreement" and for equal treatment

The employers’ organisations ABU and NBBU had previously concluded a collective agreement with the small LBV union [a lesser-known Dutch trade union], but this is completely unsatisfactory and described as a "sham collective agreement" by the strikers.

In the ultimatum launched before the strike, the union demanded a collective agreement providing equal pay for equal work, complete transparency on working conditions and better protection for migrant workers. According to the FNV union, the collective agreement that was signed allows temporary employment agencies to invent their own conditions "in the absence of any verifiable equivalence," according to a union statement. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) [Dutch national statistics office], "temporary workers earn on average 37% less than their colleagues on permanent contracts. Even taking into account training and experience, a 13% difference remains."

There are also other differences in terms of social benefits. Temporary workers only receive 20 to 25 days of leave per year. They don’t receive a 13th month [common European practice of paying an extra month’s salary as bonus]. Permanent employees have breaks two to three times longer. And in April, temporary workers saw their bonuses and holiday days reduced and their targets revised upwards. This, whilst temporary workers often work for years - 9 years in Paulina’s case, mentioned above in this article, 10 to 15 years for others - in the same place and are in reality permanent employees.

And then there’s housing. Being dependent on the temporary employment agency is already a problem in itself. Some rooms are decent, but others are really poorly equipped, where no one should live. They have, for example, rooms without windows and without access to daylight. Mould, which constitutes a health hazard, is also frequent. And this for rents that are no lower than market rates.

This mobilisation is very important, believes Cihan Ugural, from the FNV. "Whether it’s schedules, pay, leave, maintaining salary during illness, etc. They see the difference with permanent employees every day."
The strike’s extension

Initially, the strikers focused on the distribution centres. They organised meetings there, conducted highly visible actions and shared their story with their colleagues. They also travelled by bus to other distribution centres.

But from 4th July, they also intensified their actions outside to be more visible and attract more media attention. On that day, strikers from Tilburg, Pijnacker, Zwolle and Geldermalsen gathered in Buizenpark in Rotterdam. This park is located next to the new immigration museum. The objective was twofold. On one hand, they attempted to present the museum with a banner on which the strikers had inscribed their names. Indeed, with this strike, migrant workers are writing a page of history, and in some time, this banner will become a museum piece. On the other hand, after two weeks of strike, they wanted to get away a bit from the deserted industrial zones and have a good time together.

On 8th July, more than a hundred Polish temporary workers on strike went to the headquarters of the employers’ organisation VNO-NCW [Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers] and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in The Hague [seat of Dutch government].

Under the slogan "Equal pay now! Stop de sjoemelcao" [Dutch: Stop the dodgy collective agreements], they made their demand heard to be treated the same way as workers on permanent contracts.

A petition was presented to the VNO-NCW, which begins with the following text: "I’m fed up! I do the same work as my colleagues on permanent contracts. But I receive a lower salary, I have fewer rights and less security. This isn’t fair. I demand equal treatment and I want to have my say about my working conditions. And this starts with an honest collective agreement." After presenting the petition, a discussion had to take place to see what the VNO-NCW leaders had to offer temporary workers.

The strikers then went to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. The situation of temporary workers was explained to two civil servants, including the spokesperson for Minister Eddy van Hijum [Dutch minister], notably through a speech by Paulina.

After a two-hour break in Koekamp park in The Hague, where the FNV had amongst other things organised a barbecue, the strikers continued their action by informing their colleagues at the Jumbo distribution centre in Bleiswijk about their strike and encouraging them to join them. The objective was to broaden the strike and strengthen it.

On 11th July, the strikers were supposed to go to OTTO’s office [major temporary employment agency] to conduct an action there, but the most important temporary employment agency employing Polish migrant workers refused to discuss with the strikers, who are predominantly Polish.

The strikers then decided to go to the ABU and demonstrate there against the rigged collective agreement. But there too, the riggers refused to speak to the strikers.
OTTO and Albert Heijn’s counter-offensive

The temporary employment agency OTTO and Albert Heijn resort to various intimidation tactics and spread false information to counter the strike. For example, they told some that they could be dismissed or transferred if they decided to strike, that striking was "illegal" and that they were actually already treated equally. Furthermore, they called upon strike-breakers by transferring staff from other distribution centres to centres where the strike was ongoing. This practice has already been banned by the courts in the past.

The other temporary employment agencies concerned are Carrière, Covebo and Tempo Team [Dutch temporary employment agencies].
Jumbo joins the movement

On 14th and 15th July, temporary workers from Jumbo logistics platforms also joined the strike, in Bleiswijk (Jumbo online), Breda, Veghel and Woerden [Dutch cities]. A picket line was maintained for several hours.

The strikers at Jumbo are also migrant workers, but mainly Bulgarians and Romanians. Contact with the Polish AH strikers was established because they live in the same workers’ hostels. At Jumbo, it was the first strike, which encountered some organisational problems at the beginning. But with support from the Polish strikers and FNV flex, these could be resolved.
Strike not suspended, then suspended

On Friday 11th July, the strikers went not only to the ABU, but also to the FNV. The FNV indeed wanted to suspend the strike due to the summer period. But as the strike was beginning to resonate, including in other companies, the strikers wanted nothing to do with it. That’s why, after their visit to the ABU, they went to the FNV headquarters. After presenting their point of view convincingly, the strikers got their way and the strike therefore should not be suspended.

But during the past week, it appeared that the current strike rested on a narrow base and that it was necessary to extend it. It was therefore decided to suspend the strike from week 30 (21st to 27th July) in order to be able to focus fully on broadening contacts with other temporary workers. This means establishing contacts at workplaces and places of residence. From there, the movement can be broadened and strengthened if necessary.

With the negotiations that will take place at the end of August to achieve a good collective agreement, a first result has already been obtained. In parallel, OTTO has distributed to its temporary workers a document containing concrete commitments.

The FNV is currently setting up an emergency service for temporary workers who participated in the first phase of the strike. If they are victims of intimidation or other abusive practices at their workplace, a reaction will be immediately initiated.

As Karin Heynsdijk, leader of FNV Flex, says: "What we have built these past weeks will not be abandoned. We remain organised, we remain visible and, if necessary, we will continue the strike. After August, we will return even stronger and with even more people."

Paulina Nietupska, strike leader, employed by OTTO at the AH distribution centre in Tilburg: "We went on strike because we want the same rights. The same work, the same salary and the same guarantees as permanent staff. And we won’t give up until this is sorted out."
Solidarity is essential

Precarious and migrant workers constitute an important part of the working class, often difficult to organise. The success of this strike can give a boost to this work. It is therefore essential to organise solidarity to support and strengthen the strike.

But mutual solidarity is one of the weaknesses of the FNV and the working class. This solidarity must be organised and encouraged. Members of the "Solidair met Palestina" [Solidarity with Palestine] network union have taken the first step by creating a "FNV Solidair Polski Strajk" application. This application is accessible to everyone. The objective is to organise and encourage solidarity from this group.

The strikers, who have temporarily suspended their movement, really need additional support. Additional pressure on temporary employment agencies and on Albert Heijn and Jumbo could contribute to obtaining a good collective agreement.

19 July 2025

Translated for ESSF by Adam Novak.
Source - Grenzeloos.


Attached documentspolski-strajk-first-strike-amongst-temporary-workers-mainly_a9109.pdf (PDF - 920.3 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9109]

Footnotes

[1] This article draws notably on the FNV statement concerning the strike suspension and on articles published by Doorbraak and socialisme.nu .


John Cozijn is active in the climate movement, is part of the new Facebook group FNV Solidair Polski Strajk and is a member of SAP – Grenzeloos.


International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.

Temporary foreign workers need more paths to immigration, experts say

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

Jun 16, 2023

As hotel and restaurant owners increasingly turn to temporary foreign workers to fill labour gaps, there are growing calls to give those workers more paths to permanent residency.

“If there are particular occupations where there's a real need and we’ve become dependent on temporary foreign workers ... we should include them in a permanent system,” said Naomi Alboim, a senior policy fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the labour picture for the accommodation and food service industry, the use of temporary foreign workers in the sector has been rising for years. According to Statistics Canada, their share of the workforce more than doubled from 4.4 per cent in 2010 to 10.9 per cent in 2020.

That share is expected to keep rising as companies struggle to fill tens of thousands of jobs amid record low unemployment, pandemic-accelerated early retirements and workers leaving for other sectors, said Adrienne Foster, vice-president of policy and public affairs for the Hotel Association of Canada.

Around 90 per cent of the association’s member employers have increased wages to try and attract more workers domestically, and many have increased benefits, development opportunities and other perks, but they’re still struggling to attract applicants, she said.

“COVID did kind of precipitate a decreased appetite for those types of jobs,” said Foster.

“I think at the end of the day … the demographics of the Canadian workforce mean that we have to work internationally,” she said.

To address these gaps, the federal government rolled out temporary measures in April 2022, allowing employers in the accommodation and food service sector, among other sectors facing labour shortages, to hire up to 30 per cent of their workforce through the Temporary Foreign Worker program for low-wage positions. The temporary measures were extended in March 2023 until the end of October. 

But as use of the TFW program becomes more common, so is criticism of what some call an over-reliance on temporary foreign workers, with concerns about the risks these workers may face. 

Temporary foreign worker permits are usually tied to the employer that brought them into the country, making workers reluctant to report abuses, said Derek Johnstone, special assistant to the national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

“It puts the entire onus on the migrant,” said Johnstone, though he said the union has had some success in helping workers demonstrate employer abuse and get open work permits as a result. 

Alboim said a dependence on temporary foreign workers can also disincentivize employers from increasing wages and benefits, improving working conditions, and even automating more. 

At the same time as the government opens the door to more temporary foreign labour, it’s also ramping up immigration, mainly in higher-skilled sectors, said Alboim, a former Ontario Deputy Minister of Immigration. And because many temporary foreign workers are entering the country for what are considered lower-skilled jobs, they have fewer opportunities to transition to permanent residency, she said. 

“We have developed, in my view, a really bifurcated system,” she said. “High-skilled, permanent. Low-skilled, temporary. And I don’t think that’s healthy for the economy, and I don’t think that’s healthy for the country.”

Recent changes to the selection system for economic immigrants include a few more occupations from categories considered lower-skill, which is a good start, she said.

The restaurant sector needs to increase hiring of domestic workers and hiring through immigration, while also having the option of temporary foreign workers to fill in gaps or seasonal demand, said Olivier Bourbeau, vice-president of federal affairs with industry group Restaurants Canada.

“We don’t only need temporary foreign workers, we need a real immigration strategy,” he said. 

The current system is two-tiered, Bourbeau agreed, saying he’d like to see changes made to create more mobility for temporary workers within companies and in the industry to potentially help them become eligible for permanent residency. 

Foster at the Hotels Association is also supportive of more paths to permanent residency for temporary foreign workers in the hospitality sector, such as through the Express Entry program. 

“I think the biggest challenge we have right now with our immigration system is that it really favours education,” she said. “There's a huge mismatch between the people who are coming in and the job vacancies that are available.” 

Instead of the current patchwork of difficult-to-navigate federal and provincial programs and pilots, the federal economic immigration system should be expanded to include these workers, who are filling ongoing labour market needs, said Alboim. 

“If the temporary workers coming in are truly doing temporary work ... we need that flexibility in our system,” she said. “But to fill ongoing jobs? I think it’s unconscionable.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2023.

Alberta's Padrone Culture

While unions in Alberta have opposed the exploitation of foreign workers which is being promoted by oil companies and their pals in the provincial and federal governments it is also the unions that are fighting for these workers rights.

Exploitation of foreign workers is rife in the free wheeling padrone culture of Alberta.

An advocate for Alberta's temporary foreign workers says her phone is ringing off the hook with people who say they're being treated unfairly by their bosses.

They came for a brief taste of the Alberta Advantage, with each man saying he paid $6,000 to $12,000 up front for a chance to ply his trade for a better wage.

But they wound up with no job, their money gone, crammed 15 to a house in Mill Woods, with no legal right to work in Canada. They had no promise of help getting home and demands from their work agent for even more money, they say.

The agency, Worldwide Workforce, says the men are lying and that the thousands of dollars it did charge went to cover legitimate costs.

In the meantime, two other foreign workers, with a Chinese firm, died on one of the oilpatch projects the East Indian arrivals expected to work on.

Seven of the East Indian men are now working, after residents took them in and introduced them to the International Boilermakers Union, which found them placements with employers who had federal permission to hire temporary foreign workers. Three more may have work soon.

Employment and Immigration and Industry Minister Iris Evans tabled a letter
from Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan in the Legislature today
as proof that she's doing everything she can to protect the growing number of
foreign workers brought into Alberta under temporary work permits.

But McGowan says all the minister's stunt proves is that she really
doesn't understand how her own department functions and what challenges
temporary workers actually face when they arrive here.

McGowan says there are currently no dedicated mechanisms in place at
either the federal or provincial level to ensure that temporary foreign
workers are being treated fairly by employers. Instead, both governments
simply say temporary workers are covered by the same system of workplace rules
as domestic workers.

"The current complaint driven system is flawed for domestic Canadian
workers - but it's a disaster for temporary foreign workers," says McGowan.
"By falling back on the current system, the Minister is basically admitting
that she's not prepared to do anything to help temporary foreign workers. As a
result, she's helping to create a vast underclass of exploitable workers who
don't have access to the same kind of rights and protections in the workplace
as other workers in Canada."

Minister Says Don't Come To Alberta Unless You Have A Job/Home

CALGARY/AM770CHQR - Employment and immigration minister is telling people thinking of moving to the province to stay home unless they have a job and a place to live.
Iris Evans says she doesn't want anyone coming here with unrealistic expectations.
Her comments come as Finance Minister Lyle Oberg pondered tax incentives for developers to get more affordable housing built.
Oberg says his department will be looking at both tax incentives and tax cuts.

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
CLAC, unions, labour shortage, Monte Solberg, Canada, Alberta, tarsands, oilsands, labour, labor, work, jobs, IBEW, Merit Contractors, non-union, rat unions, yellow dog union, Timmies, Tim Hortons, temporary workers

Quebec employers group worried 'politicized' immigration debate will hurt jobs

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

The latest spat between Quebec and Ottawa over immigration is based on politics and not the reality of the labour market, says the head of a major employers group.

"In some ways, it's deplorable," said Karl Blackburn, president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec.

His comments come as Quebec Premier François Legault is threatening to hold a "referendum" on immigration if the federal government doesn't take rapid action to stem the rising number of temporary immigrants, which include foreign workers, international students and refugee claimants.

"The majority of Quebecers think that 560,000 temporary immigrants is too much," Legault said last week. "It’s hurting our health-care system. We don’t have enough teachers, we don’t have enough housing."

Provincial Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette said the province's demands include stronger French-language requirements in immigration programs managed by the federal government and a reduction in the number of asylum seekers and temporary workers.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the province's bid for full control over immigration — currently a shared responsibility — Legault said in March that his federal counterpart had showed openness to some of the province's demands, and agreed with him on the need to reduce temporary immigrants.

Blackburn, however, disagrees that there are too many temporary workers, who he said are "working in our businesses producing goods and services." Their numbers, he added, reflect the needs of the labour market and of an aging society.

He said he supports the Legault government's call to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the province because Quebec has received a disproportionate share in recent years. But he denounced the federal government's "improvised" decision to suddenly reimpose visas on some Mexican nationals earlier this year, a measure Quebec had pushed for as a way of reducing asylum claims.

He said that's already having "direct effects" on businesses by restricting their ability to bring in workers. Any subsequent measures to reduce the number of temporary workers will further hurt Quebec's economy as well as consumers who will no longer have access to the same goods and services, he said.

"It's as if our governments knowingly agreed to cause companies to lose contracts for reasons of political partisanship and not based on economic growth, which is nonsensical in a way," Blackburn said.

Politicians are unfairly blaming immigrants for shortages of housing, daycare spaces and teachers, when the real problem is government failure to invest in those areas, he added.

The long-running debate between Quebec and Ottawa has flared in recent months. Earlier this year, the premier wrote to Trudeau about the influx of asylum seekers entering Quebec, which has welcomed more than 65,000 of the 144,000 would-be refugees who came to Canada last year.

Quebec has demanded Ottawa reimburse the province $1 billion — the amount Quebec says it has cost to care for asylum seekers over the last three years.

Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said last week that no country would ever give up total control over immigration. But he said he and his provincial counterpart are having good discussions and agree on many matters, including limiting visas to Mexicans and protecting French.

While Legault has blamed the federal government for the “exploding” number of newcomers, the director of a research institute and co-author of a recent study on temporary immigrants says both Ottawa and Quebec have brought in measures in recent years to facilitate their arrival.

Emna Braham says the surge in temporary immigrants is due to a combination of factors, including a tight labour market, post-secondary institutions recruiting internationally, and programs by both Ottawa and Quebec to allow companies to bring in more workers.

She said numbers have now climbed higher than either level of government expected, likely because temporary immigration is administered through a series of programs that are separate from one another.

“We had a set of measures that could be justified individually, but there was no reflection on what the impact will be of all these cumulative measures on the flow of immigrants that Quebec and Canada accept,” Braham said in a phone interview.

Quebec, meanwhile, says a way to reduce the number of temporary workers is to invest in technology.

"As we know, Quebec lags behind in terms of business robotization and automation. By investing in technologies, businesses will be able to increase their productivity while relying less on temporary workers," Fréchette said in a statement Monday.

Both Braham and Blackburn point out that the high number of temporary workers in Quebec is also a result of the province’s decision to cap the number of new permanent residents it accepts each year to around 50,000, creating a bottleneck of people awaiting permanent status.

"If the government of Quebec had set its thresholds at the level they should be to meet the needs of the labour market, we wouldn't be in this situation where (there) is a significant increase in temporary workers," Blackburn said.

Braham said the moment is right for provinces and the federal government to develop a coordinated approach to immigration, and to ensure a system is put in place to ensure both long- and short-term needs are met. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2024.

Justin Trudeau says Canada reducing number of temporary foreign workers

By Sumanti Sen
Aug 27, 2024


Justin Trudeau has announced that he is planning to reduce the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers and permanent residents being allowed into Canada.


Justin Trudeau has announced that he is planning to reduce the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers and permanent residents being allowed into Canada. This comes as Canada is struggling to deal with a rapidly growing population that, according to some economists, has been putting pressure on housing and public services like

 healthcare

.

Justin Trudeau says Canada reducing number of temporary foreign workers (Photographer: Dean Casavechia/Bloomberg)(Bloomberg)

Trudeau took to X to make the announcement. “We’re reducing the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers in Canada,” he wrote. “The labour market has changed. Now is the time for our businesses to invest in Canadian workers and youth.”

‘Canada remains a place that is positive in its support for immigration’

The federal statistics revealed that the majority of Canada’s population growth last year, which was about 97%, was driven by immigration. Trudeau and his government have often been called out for increasing immigration without bolstering services or housing construction.

Trudeau said at a press conference that changes to the labour market have prompted him to eye an overhaul to the temporary foreign workers programme. “It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited,” he said, according to BBC.

The Temporary Foreign Worker programme allows foreign nationals to be hired by employers in Canada to fill temporary jobs in the absence of qualified Canadians. Labour advocates have criticised the programme. Recently, the UN called it “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” in a report.

Meanwhile, Trudeau also said that his cabinet has been considering reductions to permanent resident streams. The Prime Minister has been behind in polls as Canadians say Canada is bringing in a huge number of immigrants.

"We're looking at the various streams to make sure that as we move forward, Canada remains a place that is positive in its support for immigration, but also responsible in the way we integrate and make sure there's pathways to success for everyone who comes to Canada," Trudeau told reporters, Reuters reported. He added that this fall, the government will come up with a broader plan on immigration levels.

Canada to restrict low-wage foreign workers, consider lower immigration targets

August 26, 2024 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the Sunday evening cabinet retreat dinner at the Halifax Convention Centre on Sunday Aug. 25, 2024. 

CANADIAN PRESS/Kelly Clark

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is urging businesses to hire Canadians as his government announces new restrictions to limit the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in the country.

Ottawa is also considering whether to reduce its annual targets for permanent residency — a potentially major shift in immigration policy for the Liberals.

In response to mounting criticism of the recent influx in temporary foreign workers, the federal government is bringing back pre-pandemic rules that made it harder for businesses to hire low-wage workers from abroad.

Speaking to reporters at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax on Monday, Trudeau said his government loosened the rules to help businesses that were facing labour shortages recover from the pandemic.

But the economic situation is different now, he said, and Canada “no longer needs as many temporary foreign workers.”


“We need Canadian businesses to invest in training and technology and not increasing their reliance on low-cost foreign labour,” Trudeau said.

“It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited.”

Trudeau said Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault is also looking at making changes to the high-wage stream of the program.

When asked whether the federal government is also considering restricting the number of permanent residents, the prime minister said those were “ongoing conversations.”

Monday’s announcement is the latest effort by the Liberals to limit the number of people coming into the country in response to criticism of its immigration policies.

Effective Sept. 26, the government will refuse applications for low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher.

Employers will be allowed to hire a maximum of 10 per cent of their workforce from the temporary foreign worker program, down from 20 per cent.

Workers hired through the low-wage stream will be able to work a maximum of one year, down from two years.

There will be some exceptions to the rules for specific sectors such as health care and construction.

“To those who would complain about worker shortages, here’s my message: there is no better time to hire and invest in Canadian workers,” Trudeau said.

Strong population growth over the last couple of years, driven by high immigration, has increased demand for housing and economists say that has worsened affordability.


The temporary foreign worker program has also been criticized for allowing cheap labour into the country at a time when the economy is slowing down.

When the federal government eased restrictions for the program in 2022, Canada had about one million job vacancies across the country and the unemployment rate dipped to a record-low of 4.9 per cent.

Job vacancies have decreased significantly since then and the unemployment rate is climbing as high interest rates restrict economic growth.

In July, the unemployment rate was 6.4 per cent.

Economists have criticized the federal government for maintaining the relaxed rules, arguing that they discourage businesses from investing in innovation and suppress workers’ wages.

Mike Moffatt, an economist with the Smart Prosperity Institute who is set to speak to cabinet Tuesday morning about the state of Canada’s middle class, called the move a great first step — “But only a first step.”

“Today’s changes basically roll us back to where we were in April 2022. I think there’s a lot more to do,” he said.

Moffatt said there are more streams of foreign workers that could be restricted, adding there’s been a massive increase in high-wage administrative assistants hired from abroad.

“We’re moving in the right direction. We’re just not doing so far enough or fast enough to address this crisis.”

While the Liberal government has defended its decision to loosen the rules, it is now acknowledging that it’s time to tighten them again.

According to public data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 183,820 temporary foreign worker permits became effective in 2023. That was up from 98,025 in 2019 — an 88 per cent increase.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller later echoed Trudeau’s comments about potentially lowering the country’s targets for permanent residents.

“All options are on the table,” Miller said.

“I’ve heard directly from Canadians about where they see the direction of immigration going, and I think they’re asking us to adjust.”

Miller said cabinet has not yet discussed lowering immigration targets, but that over the next few weeks it will consider a wide range of options.

Canada is currently set to welcome 500,000 permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026, up from 485,000 this year.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman said the Liberal government’s announcement amounted to a reversal of its own policies.

She also attacked Housing Minister Sean Fraser, who was previously responsible for the immigration file.

“Today, they’ve walked back the disastrous policies of Sean Fraser, who at the time was immigration minister, who broke our immigration system and is now responsible for fixing housing. Canadians don’t buy it anymore,” Lantsman said.

As immigration minister, Fraser increased permanent resident targets and argued that Canada needed more people to grow the economy and help build more homes.

Historically, there have been no targets for temporary residents and the temporary foreign worker program is overseen by the employment minister.

However, Miller announced in March the federal government will begin including targets for both temporary and permanent residents in its immigration levels plan this fall.

Miller also pledged to decrease the share of temporary residents in the country to five per cent of the population over the next three years.

According to Statistics Canada data, temporary residents represented 6.8 per cent of the population as of April 1.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2024.

— With files from Mia Rabson and Lynsday Armstrong in Halifax

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

CANADA

Seasonal workers should get Medicare coverage, advocacy group says

Tue, February 7, 2023 

The majority of New Brunswick's temporary foreign workers work in seafood processing, forestry and food manufacturing. (CBC - image credit)

An advocacy group is calling on New Brunswick to extend Medicare coverage to the thousands of temporary foreign workers living in the province.

Approximately 3,400 people work from six to eight months in the province's major industries — forestry, seafood processing and food manufacturing. Medicare is only available to those with a work permit that's valid for 12 months or more, which excludes seasonal workers.

Aditya Rao, founding board member of the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre in New Brunswick, said seasonal workers are reliant on private health insurance purchased by their employer. This insurance rarely covers primary health care and lab tests, and there's no incentive for the employer to spend more than the minimum on the policies, he said.

"They're systemically excluded from access to Medicare," he said. "Their employers have to essentially play doctor and decide what level of private health-care insurance is appropriate for their workers."

Premier Blaine Higgs was in Ottawa Tuesday to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and discuss health-care transfer funds.

Rao is also calling on the federal government to attach strings to that health-care cash to make sure it all goes to health care, and that some of it goes to temporary workers.

Department of Health spokesperson Adam Bowie confirmed that only foreign workers with a work permit of 12 months or more are eligible for Medicare. He did not answer questions about why the province does not provide Medicare coverage to people with work permits valid for fewer than 12 months, or if the province has any plans to expand coverage in the future.

Rao said he's heard from a worker who had to pay $1,000 out of pocket for an ultrasound in New Brunswick. Another is currently fundraising to pay for dialysis, and another pays $30 for each doctor visit.

He said these workers don't feel comfortable speaking publicly because of fear of reprisal from employers, and therefore deportation. He said many people work for eight months, go back to their country, and hope their employer invites them back for the next season.

"If they speak out about issues that they're facing then they might not be called back," he said.

He said the expense is especially burdensome for temporary workers, who are already working low-paying jobs that are dangerous. Although workers come from all over the globe, the majority are from the Philippines and Mexico, Rao said.

International students were in the same situation, but that changed in 2017. Now, international students just have to show a valid study permit and proof of full-time registration at a New Brunswick college or university to get Medicare coverage. New Brunswick became the eighth province to cover international students.

Extended coverage in other provinces

Foreign workers are required to have work permits for 12 months or longer in order to qualify for health care in New Brunswick, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba.

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia require a six-month work permit.

In Saskatchewan, temporary foreign workers must live in the province for three months before they're eligible, just like all other new residents.

Quebec has extended coverage specifically for temporary foreign workers. Agriculture workers, and temporary foreign workers from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico or Salvador can have provincial health-care coverage immediately upon arrival to Quebec.

COVID-19 measures in Ontario have resulted in making all temporary foreign workers eligible for provincial health care, said Rao, but there's no indication how long that will last.

What happens when the workers who make hand soap get COVID-19? They protest.

April 30, 2020 By Pro Publica


After a worker at a beauty supply factory near Chicago died of COVID-19, her former co-workers staged a protest. But they didn’t seek help from OSHA. They sought help from a new advocate: the state attorney general’s office.

In the weeks before Norma Martinez died of COVID-19, she and her co-workers talked about their fears of contracting the coronavirus on the factory floor where they make and bottle personal care and beauty products, including hand soaps.

Rumors had been circulating among the workers — particularly those, like Martinez, who were employed through temporary staffing agencies -— that somebody at the facility in the southwest suburb of Countryside had tested positive for the virus or had been exposed to someone who had. Martinez, 45, told relatives she walked quickly and tried to hold her breath when she got close to other workers.

Some employees stopped taking shifts, worried about the risks of working elbow to elbow on tight factory lines or swiping in with their fingertips on biometric time clocks. But many more kept showing up, unable to afford to stay home and isolate.

“Norma went to work scared like all of us, but taking the safety precautions she could: washing hands, using gloves, wiping down machinery with rubbing alcohol,” said one of her co-workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing her job. “We weren’t OK with the factory still being open.”

Martinez, a Mexican immigrant and mother of two, died April 13. Her death came just days after the Voyant Beauty facility shut down for a deep cleaning after another employee tested positive for the coronavirus, according to several workers.

After Martinez’s death, her former co-workers, with the help of a workers’ advocacy center, went to the Illinois attorney general’s office, which has taken on the role of investigating workplace safety complaints from the private sector amidst the pandemic. The office is filling a void left by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has taken a largely hands-off approach to investigating coronavirus-related complaints from workers outside the health care industry, leaving employers to mostly police themselves.

Workers’ advocates and a group of Latino lawmakers say that they are grateful the attorney general’s office has taken on worker safety issues during this crisis, but that it’s a piecemeal solution, one that has led workers in some area factories to stage walkouts or other protests over safety related to the pandemic.

“It’s a Band-Aid for a flood,” said Tim Bell, the executive director of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that focuses on temporary workers. He and others worry that more factory and warehouse workers will get sick and die unless the state establishes and enforces strong COVID-19 workplace safety rules at facilities considered too essential to shut down during the pandemic. “Given OSHA is still hiding under their desks,” Bell said, “there’s got to be something the state does to protect its residents.”

It’s unknown how many factory, food processing or warehouse workers have died of COVID-19 in Illinois. This weekend El Milagro, a popular Chicago tortilla maker,announced it would shut down for two weeks after one of its workers died from complications related to COVID-19. Martinez’s death was the first reported to the attorney general’s office. A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health said the agency has some limited occupational data related to COVID-19 cases, but it is incomplete and not publicly available. The department, the spokeswoman said, is working on this issue.

But state officials recognize that workplace safety is a massive area of concern right now. So many complaints from workers have flooded the attorney general’s office that its workplace rights bureau has had to more than quadruple in size, pulling in attorneys from across the office.

“My understanding is that OSHA has taken the position … that they were not enforcing the CDC guidelines that were put out,” said Alvar Ayala, who heads the bureau. “That put a special urgency on this, and that’s where a lot of these organizations were coming to us and workers were coming to us for enforcement.”

In the past six weeks, the bureau has received more than 1,000 workplace safety complaints related to COVID-19, ranging from employers failing to maintain safe spacing on assembly lines to not conducting a deep cleaning of a workplace after a worker tests positive. Many complaints have come in Spanish and from employees in the manufacturing, food processing and packaging industries.

The attorney general’s office then works with local health department officials to conduct inspections of factories and warehouses to determine what changes, if any, are needed. So far, the office has not brought any lawsuits against manufacturers or other companies for violating workplace safety, though it has the authority to do so under state law and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s March order on social distancing. The possibility of a lawsuit, officials said, has been enough to prompt compliance.

Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, said he thinks local, state and federal agencies are doing their best when it comes to responding to workers’ safety concerns amidst an unprecedented situation. “Everybody is struggling to get a grasp of how to handle it, whether it’s the state, the city, OSHA, the CDC,” he said. “Certainly the AG is vested with certain powers to fulfill its job. The Department of Labor has powers to fulfil their jobs. Manufacturers are operating as safely as possible.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, said the agency “is diligently working every day to help employers understand and meet” their obligations to protect workers exposed to coronavirus at work. The spokesperson said OSHA has received a complaint regarding Voyant Beauty but could not provide further information until the investigation was complete. It’s unclear who filed the complaint or whether it is connected to Martinez’s death.

Even as the federal worker-safety agency has been inundated with complaints, it has rolled back safety standards and virtually eliminated non-health care workplaces from government protection.

Former co-workers said Martinez had worked at Voyant for years through a temp agency, most recently in quality control.

Ann Miller, a senior vice president for human resources at Voyant, said the company was “heartbroken for this loss.”

She said the company had taken a number of safety procedures before hearing from the state, including daily temperature checks, issuing personal protective equipment to workers and sterilizing work areas daily. In addition, Miller said, the plant is shut down and deep-cleaned on weekends and in the event of a positive or presumed positive COVID-19 test.

The attorney general’s office, Miller said, had “no further suggested actions.” A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said the company had “agreed to comply with the governor’s executive order” just two days after Martinez’s death, but she did not explain what specifically the company agreed to do.

The office has not received additional complaints about the factory since then, the spokeswoman said.

Workers said the company had indeed made some changes at the facility to improve workplace safety in the weeks and days leading up to Martinez’s death. But they weren’t always effective. One worker said she passed daily temperature checks but discovered a few days after Martinez’s death that she was positive for COVID-19; she was an asymptomatic carrier. That worker also described being unable to wear a face mask at the site because it fogged up her safety goggles.

Bell’s group has been calling on Pritzker to enact new protections for temporary manufacturing and warehouse workers, including mandating 6 feet of spacing between workers, banning the use of biometric time clocks and requiring paid sick time for temporary workers.

Pritzker’s office did not respond to requests for comment. However, a modified stay-at-home order that the governor announced last week will require manufacturers and other essential businesses to provide face coverings to all employees who are unable to maintain 6 feet of social distancing and to take additional precautions such as staggering shifts and operating only essential production lines. The new order goes into effect Friday and is extended through May.

Meanwhile, a group of Latino lawmakers has also been pressing the governor to set clear safety rules and penalties for manufacturers. Among the requests: mandates to ensure proper social distancing and routinely disinfect common spaces; a requirement to shut down for at least 24 hours for deep cleanings after a confirmed COVID-19 case among workers; and a guarantee of two weeks of paid time off for workers who test positive.

“We urge you to send a forceful and unequivocal message to all businesses that putting workers at risk, regardless of their race, ethnicity, language or citizenship status, will never be tolerated in our State,” members of the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus wrote in a letter last month. The issue is particularly pressing among Latino constituents, the lawmakers wrote, because many of those who work in manufacturing are Latino immigrants.

When the governor’s office responded, it told the lawmakers “what we already know,” said State Rep. Karina Villa, a Democrat from West Chicago, a city with a large manufacturing base. The email from the Pritzker’s office included information on how workers with COVID-19-related complaints could go to the state OSHA or to the federal OSHA or attorney general’s office.

“There are no changes. There were no guidelines or enforcement,” said Villa, who added that she has received complaints from workers at about a dozen factories and food production facilities about COVID-19.


As some Illinois factories and warehouses stay open making supplies amid the coronavirus outbreak, workers say standing elbow to elbow in production lines and clocking in with fingerprint scanners could make them sick.

Villa, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said the issue hits her on a personal level because so many people in her own life work in factories in the Chicago suburbs. She said one close relative who works at a meat processing facility in St. Charles recently tested positive for COVID-19. The Kane County Health Department temporarily shut down that plant Friday over concerns about COVID-19. (The state’s Public Health Department said it is working to formalize guidance for meat and food processing facilities, where it has identified clusters of COVID-19 cases.)

Villa and other advocates said they are particularly worried about temporary workers, who are disproportionately Latino; some 42% of the state’s more than 675,000 temporary workers identified as Latino, according to a state audit of temp agencies from July 2019.

Many are also undocumented, which makes them ineligible for unemployment benefits and federal stimulus benefits. That leaves many workers financially vulnerable, prompting them to return to workplaces where they feel unsafe, advocates said. During a Facebook live interview Monday with Univision Chicago, Pritzker said his administration is looking to create some type of cash assistance program for undocumented immigrants who don’t qualify for federal benefits.California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this month a private-public partnership to put cash in undocumented residents’ pockets amidst the pandemic.

At Voyant, the news of Martinez’s death convinced some of her former co-workers to stay home or get tested for coronavirus themselves. The day after she died, former co-workers staged a car caravan protest in her memory in front of the factory. About 10 workers showed up, taking turns slowly driving past the entrance and honking. Some had signs on their car windows. “We want safety for the workers,” one sign read. “No more deaths from contagion.”

The death was sudden, said one relative who lives in the same house as Martinez’ family. She died at home in the early hours of April 13, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. At least one other family member got sick, the relative said. They were still in shock and grieving her loss.

The relative recalled how Martinez worried about keeping her children safe from any possible infection she brought home from work. As soon as she entered the house, she stripped her work clothes off and showered. “She wouldn’t let her children get too close,” the relative said. “She was afraid to hug them.”

Duaa Eldeib and Jodi S. Cohen contributed reporting.

Immigration increase alone won't fix the labour market, experts say

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
Feb 1, 2023    

Experts say Canada’s plan to increase immigration may ease some pressures in the labour market, but bigger changes are needed to ensure new permanent residents are matched with the jobs that most need filling.

With the unemployment rate at historic lows, many companies are “starved” for workers, and new immigrants will help fill some of the need, said Ravi Jain, principal at Jain Immigration Law and co-founder of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association.

The federal government’s new immigration plan calls for the admission of 1.45 million more new permanent residents over the next three years, beginning with 465,000 in 2023 and reaching 500,000 in 2025. That's compared with 341,000 in 2019.

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the plan is intended to help attract labour in key sectors, including healthcare, skilled trades, manufacturing and technology.

“It’s clear that there are real gaps, real demands, and real needs,” said Naomi Alboim, a senior policy fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University and a former Ontario Deputy Minister of Immigration.

But upping immigration levels is just one way to begin addressing those needs, she said -- the government's plan should be part of a wider initiative to address temporary workers, international students and a larger range of jobs.

Change is needed to ensure new Canadians are well-matched to jobs that maximize their skills, qualifications and experience, said Alboim.

Recent immigrants are less likely to see their skills and education utilized than Canadian-born workers, Statistics Canada said, and new and recent immigrants are overrepresented in certain industries, including transportation and warehousing, and accommodation and food services.

Government policies have created a mismatch between the specific skills employers are looking for and the skills of immigrants being approved, Toronto immigration lawyer Sergio Karas said.

Some of this mismatch begins with international students, said Karas. Though many international students plan to become permanent residents after they graduate, many of them aren’t in programs for jobs that are in demand by immigration policies, like healthcare or trades, he said.

International students and temporary foreign workers (TFWs) have made up an increasingly large portion of Canada's economic immigrants, or those selected for their contribution to the economy, who made up more than half of recent immigrants in 2021, Statistics Canada said.

In 2020, 67 per cent of the country’s principal applicants in the economic class were previously temporary foreign workers or international students, the agency said.

But that 67 per cent is a relatively small portion of all the temporary workers and international students in Canada, said Alboim. Canada had 777,000 TFW work permit holders in 2021, and almost 622,000 international students that year, Statistics Canada said.

Canada’s dependence on temporary workers to fill long-term gaps is a huge problem, said Alboim. It creates little incentive to improve wages, conditions or supports for temporary workers, she said.

Federal immigration policy seems laser-focused on jobs requiring higher levels of training and education, said Alboim, a barrier to permanent residency for many TFWs and international students.

That's despite the fact that much of Canada’s labour shortage is in jobs that require lower levels of education or experience, jobs that many temporary workers and students take on, said Alboim.


The federal government should expand its scope to prioritize more of these kinds of jobs, she said.

“There are way, way, way more people here now with temporary status that will never be able to transition to permanent residency, assuming they want to, unless the rules for permanent residency are changed to recognize that we actually need them too,” she said.

However, not all the onus lies on the federal government, Jain said. One ongoing problem has been immigrants’ credentials not being recognized in Canada, and while there have been some recent changes aimed at improving that, more needs to be done, he said. These credentials are the jurisdiction of provinces and territories, not Ottawa.

Provincial and regional immigration programs often do a better job of bringing in workers who can meet a wide range of labour needs including in lower-skill jobs, Alboim said, noting those programs are set to increase under the federal government’s plan.

A legislative amendment recently gave the minister of immigration the power to select immigrants for Express Entry programs based on specific qualities like occupation, but currently Alboim anticipates that use of that power will be focused on higher-level jobs.

“(There are) real needs at the high end, which immigration should certainly be focused on, but not exclusively,” she said.

Jain agreed.

“My worry is that if the targeted draws get too heavy, like if it's weighted too much in terms of the proportion of people coming in, then I worry that some of these other folks will get marginalized,” he said.

“There needs to be some kind of a balance.”

— With files from Lee Berthiaume

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2023.

Harpers Most Dangerous Cabinet Minister

The most important change in the Harper Cabinet shuffle, which was overlooked by the MSM , is the decision to put Monte Solberg in charge of HRSDC. This is a logical step and a dangerous one for workers and the trade union movement in Canada.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Camrose or Calgary, Edson or Edmonton, ‘Help Wanted’ signs are everywhere,” Solberg said “And you know, when it starts to affect our ability to go to Tim Horton’s and get a double-double, it ceases to be a laughing matter. It’s a serious issue.”

Solberg was in charge of liberalising Canada's temproray worker program under his Immmigration portfolio, now he can see it to its logical conclusion under HRDC. That means more flexibility for the employers in the oil patch to hire temporary workers for Alberta. Something they and the Alberta Government have been lobbying long and hard for.

British Colombia, Alberta and Saskatchewan will benefit from a government program designed to ease regulations concerning foreign workers coming into Canada.

"Canada's new government has been listening to employers in Alberta and British Columbia, and they are truly having a hard time finding enough workers. The improvements we are announcing today are making it easier, faster, and less costly for employers to hire temporary foreign workers," said the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Monte Solberg.

Temporary workers are not allowed the same rights as other workers, including immigrant workers. They are subject to exploitation by the state and employers while being used to undermine wages and working conditions, through no fault of their own.

Already scandals around exploitation of Polish Workers in the oil patch have come to light.

Polish welders sue employers, college for $5.5 million

A group of 30 Polish welders who say they were brought to work in Canada under false pretences are suing an energy services company, Lakeland College and three individuals for more than $5.5 million.

The lawsuit, filed in Edmonton's Court of Queen's Bench on Monday, makes two main claims:

- That the men believed they were being hired by Kihew Energy Services Ltd. to work in Alberta as full-time welders, not full-time students as their visas said.

- And that once here, they received inadequate pay for their work, earning $10 to $12 an hour from Kihew while four companies contracted with Kihew paid up to $28 an hour for their services.

The court action comes one month after Alberta's Auditor General raised questions around Lakeland College's involvement in the program where the college collected more than $200,000 in tuition from Kihew to educate students who attended virtually no classes.

Auditor General Fred Dunn said in his report on Lakeland's contracting practices that the former general manager and three people who reported to him also failed to follow the college's policy about who can issue letters to Citizenship and Immigration Canada verifying international student registration. As many as 158 letters were sent to the federal agency.

And in B.C. guest workers have also been exploited by contractors. Guest Worker Contract Dubious Alleges Union Lawyer

And while Solberg cracked down on 'illegal' workers in Canada, in particular Portugese workers in Toronto's Construction industry, he did not declare a general amnesty as was done in the eighties, quite successfully, rather he deported them. In preparation to replace them with a formal temporary worker program.

March 21, 2006 – Illegal workers in Toronto's underground economy are being deported as the new Conservative government abandons a Liberal amnesty plan, immigration lawyers and consultants say. Some families who have been in Canada five years or more are given less than two weeks to pack up and leave. Toronto's Portuguese community – with up to 15,000 undocumented members, working mainly in the booming construction industry – is especially concerned.

And our laws in Canada still allow for indentured servitude, a polite term for slavery, of some foreign temporary workers especially farm workers and nannies.


Canada is one of the preferred countries of destination for Filipinos aiming to work and live abroad. But life for migrant workers and overseas Filipinos is not all that rosy in the “Land of the Free,” a motto coined and patented by Canada.


Monte's riding was the site of last years long ugly labour dispute between Tysons and its largely immigrant unionized workforce. A strike Monte didn't bother to comment on.

Placing Monte in charge of HRDC is a reward to the Alberta government and its Big Oil partners in an attempt to undermine the building trade unions in Alberta. It can only mean more confrontations between the Feds, Big Oil, the Alberta Government and the labour movement.


See:

Alberta's Free Market In Labour

The Labour Shortage Myth

AFL Agrees With Me

Monte Solberg




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temp-workers, foreign-workers, labour, labor, labour-shortage, Federal Government, Alberta Government, Canada, Builing Trades Unions, AFL, immigration, Big Oil, Alberta, Conservatives, Monte Solberg, Stephen Harper, HRSDC, Cabinet Minister

New regulations on migrant farm workers should tackle employer/employee power imbalances


Janet McLaughlin, Associate Professor of Health Studies, Research Associate, International Migration Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University,

 C. Susana Caxaj, Assistant Professor, Nursing, Western University,

 Stephanie Mayell, Doctoral Candidate, Medical Anthropology, University of Toronto

THE C ONVERSATION
Wed, February 1, 2023

A temporary foreign worker from Mexico works on a berry farm in Mirabel, Que., in May 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

The government of Canada recently amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations to include new employer obligations. These amendments are intended to enhance protections for migrant workers and ensure the integrity of the government’s temporary foreign worker program.

While a step in the right direction, the changes side-step the root issues that make temporary foreign workers vulnerable to abuse in the first place.

More than 61,000 migrant workers were employed in Canada’s agriculture sector in 2021, an increase of almost 12 per cent from 2020, marking the greatest proliferation since 2016.

In fact, migrant workers comprised nearly one-quarter of all agricultural workers in 2021.

Migrant agricultural workers are exposed to various physical and psychosocial health risks that are compounded by the precarious circumstances they face in Canada.

Our research shows that the conditions of employment under Canada’s temporary foreign worker program generate significant challenges to workers’ health, the protection of their rights and even their survival.

Repatriated if injured, sick

Workers are hired on temporary contracts that bind them to a single employer, and these contracts include a repatriation clause that allows employers to terminate and deport workers without a grievance process. Injured and sick workers are often repatriated before they can access health care and/or workers’ compensation.

Consequently, migrant workers are often unable to refuse unsafe work and are reluctant to raise health concerns or report situations of abuse.

While acknowledging some of the issues facing migrant workers in Canada, the amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations fail to address the power imbalances at the heart of the temporary foreign worker program. In fact, they risk further cementing some of these systemic problems.

Employers as health mediators

First, the federal government continues to entrench the role of the employer as an informal mediator of basic health care for workers.

Migrant workers in Ontario are eligible for provincial health care, but they experience many barriers to accessing such services, in part because of a reliance on employers.

Under the new amendments, the government of Canada once again normalizes this role. Employers are obligated to cover the waiting period before provincial health care eligibility by providing private health insurance to migrant workers upon arrival.

By imbuing the responsibility of “reasonable access to health care services” to employers when a worker is injured or becomes ill at the workplace, the government is wilfully denying the power imbalance and obvious conflict of interest posed by such an arrangement.

Consider, for example, the history of medical repatriations faced by this workforce, in which injured and sick workers are prematurely deported. At minimum, workers need independent access to health care that is unmediated by employers.

A farm worker tends to asparagus plants near Vittoria, Ont., in Norfolk County in June 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Labour abuses

Second, the risk of labour abuses and exploitation are addressed only through paperwork, and again, delegated to employers.

To illustrate, the new amendments require all employers to provide migrant workers with an employment agreement on or before the first day of work, and they are to be drafted in English or French.

The agreements must match the initial offer of employment and include information about the job offer, wages, including overtime pay, and working conditions. Many migrant workers do not read English or French. Our research has also shown that workers’ rights on paper are almost never recognized in practice.

Therefore, there is no substitute for meaningful oversight and regulation.

More promisingly, the definition of “abuse” under the new amendments has been updated to include “reprisal.”

We support this definition, as we have previously advocated for this and other actions to address workers’ risk of reprisal.

A seasonal migrant worker picks cherries at an industrial cherry orchard in British Columbia. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Vulnerable worker permit

As has been the case since 2019, if a worker can prove they’re being abused, they may have access to an Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers.

However, that permit is an ineffective mechanism to report workplace abuse because it places the burden of proof on the worker. What’s more, it doesn’t guarantee future re-employment via the temporary foreign worker program, nor does it provide workers with the housing or support they require to find new employment.

To seriously respect the rights of migrant workers, Canada needs to transform the structure of the temporary foreign worker program to curtail the power and impunity of employers and embed rights and protections for workers.

This can only be done by providing truly structural changes, such as open work permits and permanent status — measures long called for by migrant workers and their allies.

To do any less is merely making cosmetic changes to a fundamentally flawed system.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Stephanie Mayell, University of Toronto; C. Susana Caxaj, Western University, and Janet McLaughlin, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Read more:

Migrants don’t cause crime rates to increase — but false perceptions endure anyway

Migrant workers face further social isolation and mental health challenges during coronavirus pandemic

Stephanie Mayell receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She is affiliated with the Migrant Worker Health Project, and the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group (MWHEWG).

C. Susana Caxaj receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She is affiliated with the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group

Janet McLaughlin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). She is affiliated with the Migrant Worker Health Project and the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group (MWHEWG).