Abuse Within Temporary Foreign Workers Program Needs to End

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government made changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) to help businesses cope with low unemployment rates that made it hard for some of them to find employees. While changes to the new stream of low-skilled temporary foreign workers may have been a short-term necessity for some businesses, the program had become ripe for abuse by unscrupulous companies, with temporary foreign workers being hit with threats of deportation for speaking out, and wages being supressed for the youngest and least-experienced workers in the Canadian labour market.

For those unaware of how the TFWP works, it began in 1973 as a way for businesses to be able to hire skilled labour to address shortages in the Canadian labour market. Most people hired through this system were in skilled areas such as health care. Employers who would benefit from skilled labour, but were unable to find a Canadian, would have to conduct a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to prove that there is a need for a foreign worker to fill the job. It’s a viable strategy, one employed by most industrialized nations to ensure that there is always a mix of skill sets that match skill needs. But in 2002, a new category for "low-skilled workers" was added to the TFWP, allowing companies to hire for jobs that didn’t require a specific skill set to fill gaps in Canadian employment. This was likely the biggest change to the program over the years, and while most employers use the program as intended, the low-skilled stream in particular has been rife with abuse.

The program has been flagged for a number of abuses over the years, under both Conservative and Liberal governments, and involving major and minor companies, including McDonalds, Microsoft, and RBC. But perhaps the most damning report was released just this July, with the UN report by Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata calling it a “breeding ground for contemporary slavery.” The report details the potential for abuse and exploitation for TFWs because they become reliant on employers to retain their status and prevent deportation. The report lays out many issues with the program, stating “reports of underpayment and wage theft, physical, emotional and verbal abuse, excessive work hours, limited breaks, extracontractual work, uncompensated managerial duties, lack of personal protective equipment, including in hazardous conditions, confiscation of documents and arbitrary reductions of working hours.” Although the vast majority of employers are compliant with the system, there is a need to address the abuse that is occurring, and the need to deal with the problems within the low skill stream in the TFWP. These may include the potential suppression of wages of young Canadians because some employers try to work the system to hire cheaper foreign labour. A recent Senate report found similar troubling allegations. Further to this, the Toronto Star recently reported that Employment and Social Development Canada staff had been directed to suspend routine checks for abuse in 2022 to process applications faster.

Last week, the Federal granted the Quebec government requested the suspension of the TFW program in Montreal. As a result, applications for the TFW low skill stream have been suspended for six months in the economic region for jobs below the median wage of $27.47 an hour. Following this, the government initiated further restrictions to the program across the country, limiting the maximum number of low-wage TFWs to 10 percent of a company’s total workforce, and eliminating access to TFWs entirely in regions with unemployment rates above six percent. While this may curb some abuses of the program in the short-term, long-term fixes are needed.

The federal government needs to address the structural imbalances in the program that allow companies to exploit TFWs in the first place. Workers live in fear that they will be deported, creating a power imbalance with the employer that cannot be fixed with the way the system currently works. One way to do this would be to provide TFWs with landed status when arriving in Canada so they cannot be threatened with deportation. The Senate report also details further recommendations, including the development of a Migrant Work Commission, phasing out closed work permits, and making unannounced inspections of workplaces using the TFW program the standard. This last point is vital, because details recently uncovered by the NDP show that 80 percent of site inspections are done virtually, and only seven percent of inspections are unannounced site visits.

With serious issues mounting, Canada must stamp out human and workers’ rights abuses in the TFW program immediately.