Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, reported that the Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program will serve as a “breeding ground for contemporary slavery” last week.
The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program allows Canadian employers to take on foreign workers for temporary jobs. The UN report states that the program institutionalises a “significant power imbalance” between foreign workers and migrants and their employers that benefits the employers but makes it difficult for foreign workers to use their rights. Workers often have little choice but to work for employers that have not guaranteed appropriate working conditions, and their migration status depend on their employer. If they are fired, they are deported home.
The UN Special Rapporteur found that the government did not actively inform workers of their rights, that foreign workers were at risk of exploitation and the rapporteur had obtained reports of underpayment, wage theft, physical, emotional and verbal abuse, sexual harassment, disproportionate work hours, restricted breaks, extracontractual work, managerial duties that were not compensated, lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), including in hazardous conditions. Workers may feel hesitant about bringing forward issues with their employers.
Obokata recommended the Government of Canada reinforce the powers of the Office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, address the situation of migrant workers by imposing human rights standards, closing work permits regimes, guarantee migrants’ access to health care, ensure workers can effectively report abuses and get protection among other recommendations.
Mathis Denis, spokesperson for the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, said that companies are fined if their foreign workers are not given suitable working conditions. Just last year, inspections into companies led to $2.1 million fines. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) manage a website that lists non-compliant employers who have not ensured their responsibilities under the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program and the International Mobility Program. Non-compliant employers can get a monetary fine, a ban from hiring temporary workers or both. Denis said that a government survey showed that most foreign temporary workers knew about their rights.
The number of workers that have been hired through the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program has increased and according to the UN report, there were nearly 136,000 permit holders in 2022 and most worked in agriculture. Obokata had visited Canada to evaluate the Government of Canada’s efforts in contemporary forms of slavery prevention and met with government, human rights agencies, academics, workers and survivors of contemporary slavery.
