By Andrew Shepherd

Sask. Federation of Labour says temporary foreign worker program abused

Apr 22, 2014 | 6:49 AM

Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenny has been asked to investigate a restaurant in Weyburn, where two waitresses say they lost their jobs to temporary foreign workers.

One of the waitresses is Sandy Nelson who has worked at the restaurant for 28 years and says she was told previously by the owners that she would always have a job there. She wasn’t worried at first when she was told some staff would be invited to come back and work at the restaurant after its makeover. But she says the Canadian workers were not rehired.

“I want justice, I want the abuses of this program to be on record, I want monitoring systems to be set up so this type of thing doesn’t happen to people,” Nelson said.

Larry Hubich, President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour calls the temporary foreign workers program an embarrassing black eye in Canada. He says he has no doubt the program is being abused and he wants it scrapped in favour of a program that encourages proactive immigration. His comments come after recently fired Canadian workers claim temporary foreign workers took their jobs at Brothers Classic Grill in Weyburn.

Hubich says the program not only creates an environment where many workers in Saskatchewan are losing out on hours, but it also treats the foreign workers like slaves. He believes employers are abusing the program and the governments, both federal and provincial, are not doing their job enforcing it.

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“Politicians who suggest that it's not a serious problem are only pandering the businesses that want this pool of cheap labour,” he said.
Under the rules of the program, employers must seek Canadians first when filling positions but if no Canadians want the job, they can apply to hire a temporary foreign worker.

However, Hubich says that doesn't always happen. He estimates there are 450,000 temporary foreign workers in the country right now. He says the program was intended for highly skilled workers that aren't sufficiently trained in Saskatchewan, but says a significant number of those foreign employees are working in the fast food and hospitality sector.

“There are pockets of areas where it's hard to recruit but the answer isn't to open the floodgates to a temporary foreign worker program that results in workers being abused and Canadian citizens being routinely bypassed for positions that are available.”

– Edited with files from Canadian Press and CJME's Jill Smith

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