But unions don’t think changes go far enough to protect Canadians, foreign workers
The federal government has eliminated the accelerated labour market opinion (ALMO) and dropped an exception that allowed foreign workers to be paid 15 per cent less as part of changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program announced in the wake of recent headlines involving RBC.
RBC faced a media firestorm earlier this year after it signed an outsourcing deal with iGate that would eliminate about 45 positions. iGate was using workers brought in under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Gord Nixon, the bank’s CEO, ended up issuing an apology via full-page ads in newspapers across the country.
The TFWP changes are worrisome, said Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), who adds that members of the federation are angry and frustrated.
In the past, most businesses in the federation wouldn’t have considered using the temporary foreign worker program to deal with labour market shortages, said Kelly.
But over the last number of years, skills shortages in some parts of the country have made the program a necessity, he said.
“Skills shortages in some parts of the country, labour shortages have become so acute that businesses have been prompted to look at more and more options to get their products and services to market,” he said. “So we have a huge percentage of our members — close to half — that tell us that they struggle to find employees.”
In some provinces, particularly Saskatchewan and Alberta, the situation is even more difficult because smaller employers can’t afford to pay a worker at a service business — such as a restaurant — the wages that industries like oil are paying. So small companies have turned to the program out of necessity, said Kelly.
It is going to take longer to get a labour market opinion now, said Ben Kranc, a lawyer with Kranc Associates in Toronto.
“Labour market opinions have taken a long time in the past and really it was hard for employers to move along at an appropriate pace,” he said.
That was before the ALMO was introduced. The ALMO required employers to prove all the things they’d normally prove in a regular labour market opinion application but didn’t require all the background paperwork, he said.
Previously it took about 10 days to get an opinion under ALMO, but in some parts of the country it still took up to 12 weeks. Now, with the elimination of the ALMO, the time it will take to get an opinion is expected to be much longer, Kranc added.
And there will be other impacts on employers as well.
“There are certainly other ramifications in terms of obviously tougher approval criteria and assessments of what jobs may have people in Canada to fill,” he said.
But unions don’t think the changes go far enough to protect Canadians or foreign workers.
“We believe the changes are inadequate, there was no real transparency, accountability in monitoring before,” said Joe Drexler, spokesperson for the United Steelworkers. “We believe that the whole temporary foreign worker program was very haphazardly designed with intent in order to allow corporations and the Harper government to pursue a low wage strategy in Canada.”
There’s nothing the union has seen so far that demonstrates these changes will be carefully implemented, carefully monitored and that employers will be held accountable, he said.
The elimination of the 15 per cent rule, which allowed employers to pay temporary foreign workers less than the norm in their industry, has also been eliminated, a move the union applauds.
“More resources have to be utilized to make these changes real, there’s been nothing said about how the expansion of the so-called rules will be monitored, the program was not implemented in terms of what was on paper before so therefore there’s no guarantees that there will be in the future,” Drexler said.
The union is also looking for changes to the program to include a path to permanent residency or citizenship for workers coming to Canada through the program, which doesn’t exist now.
The CFIB would also support a pathway to immigration clause in the program, said Kelly.
The union wants to be consulted on changes to the program, Drexler added.
“If the government of Canada really wants to establish a program to protect Canadians and at the same time to protect against the exploitation of foreign workers, then labour unions have to be brought to the table,” he said.
For the United Steelworkers, one of the main issues is that Canadians are not taking these jobs in the first place, which Drexler said is a result of low wages in many industries utilizing the program and a lack of a systematic job training program.
“Employers have basically dropped their job training programs in the last decade, there’s been a dramatic decline in those as employers figured out they don’t have to pay for job training if they can find workers abroad that are already trained,” he said.
Overall the program has not been good for workers, he said.
“It’s been good for the corporations... not Canadians.”
Melissa Mancini is a freelance writer
RBC faced a media firestorm earlier this year after it signed an outsourcing deal with iGate that would eliminate about 45 positions. iGate was using workers brought in under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Gord Nixon, the bank’s CEO, ended up issuing an apology via full-page ads in newspapers across the country.
The TFWP changes are worrisome, said Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), who adds that members of the federation are angry and frustrated.
In the past, most businesses in the federation wouldn’t have considered using the temporary foreign worker program to deal with labour market shortages, said Kelly.
But over the last number of years, skills shortages in some parts of the country have made the program a necessity, he said.
“Skills shortages in some parts of the country, labour shortages have become so acute that businesses have been prompted to look at more and more options to get their products and services to market,” he said. “So we have a huge percentage of our members — close to half — that tell us that they struggle to find employees.”
In some provinces, particularly Saskatchewan and Alberta, the situation is even more difficult because smaller employers can’t afford to pay a worker at a service business — such as a restaurant — the wages that industries like oil are paying. So small companies have turned to the program out of necessity, said Kelly.
It is going to take longer to get a labour market opinion now, said Ben Kranc, a lawyer with Kranc Associates in Toronto.
“Labour market opinions have taken a long time in the past and really it was hard for employers to move along at an appropriate pace,” he said.
That was before the ALMO was introduced. The ALMO required employers to prove all the things they’d normally prove in a regular labour market opinion application but didn’t require all the background paperwork, he said.
Previously it took about 10 days to get an opinion under ALMO, but in some parts of the country it still took up to 12 weeks. Now, with the elimination of the ALMO, the time it will take to get an opinion is expected to be much longer, Kranc added.
And there will be other impacts on employers as well.
“There are certainly other ramifications in terms of obviously tougher approval criteria and assessments of what jobs may have people in Canada to fill,” he said.
But unions don’t think the changes go far enough to protect Canadians or foreign workers.
“We believe the changes are inadequate, there was no real transparency, accountability in monitoring before,” said Joe Drexler, spokesperson for the United Steelworkers. “We believe that the whole temporary foreign worker program was very haphazardly designed with intent in order to allow corporations and the Harper government to pursue a low wage strategy in Canada.”
There’s nothing the union has seen so far that demonstrates these changes will be carefully implemented, carefully monitored and that employers will be held accountable, he said.
The elimination of the 15 per cent rule, which allowed employers to pay temporary foreign workers less than the norm in their industry, has also been eliminated, a move the union applauds.
“More resources have to be utilized to make these changes real, there’s been nothing said about how the expansion of the so-called rules will be monitored, the program was not implemented in terms of what was on paper before so therefore there’s no guarantees that there will be in the future,” Drexler said.
The union is also looking for changes to the program to include a path to permanent residency or citizenship for workers coming to Canada through the program, which doesn’t exist now.
The CFIB would also support a pathway to immigration clause in the program, said Kelly.
The union wants to be consulted on changes to the program, Drexler added.
“If the government of Canada really wants to establish a program to protect Canadians and at the same time to protect against the exploitation of foreign workers, then labour unions have to be brought to the table,” he said.
For the United Steelworkers, one of the main issues is that Canadians are not taking these jobs in the first place, which Drexler said is a result of low wages in many industries utilizing the program and a lack of a systematic job training program.
“Employers have basically dropped their job training programs in the last decade, there’s been a dramatic decline in those as employers figured out they don’t have to pay for job training if they can find workers abroad that are already trained,” he said.
Overall the program has not been good for workers, he said.
“It’s been good for the corporations... not Canadians.”
Melissa Mancini is a freelance writer
