Just seven days after his high-profile arrest in a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) raid, all captured on tape for reality television, Mexican migrant Oscar Mata was unceremoniously deported to his homeland.
But a full week after that, the Richmond contractor who supplied Mata and at least three other illegal workers to paint a housing project in Vancouver’s east side was still on the job, ducking phone calls from reporters who couldn’t determine if CBSA officials had even begun an investigation.
That’s the way it is in the shadows of Canada’s immigration system: a free ride for rule-breaking employers and a quick trip out of town for hapless low-wage workers who generate significant profits for their bosses and sometimes pay illegal fees for the privilege.
“Once again, the employer is not facing any sanctions, and workers are being sent out of the country,” said Vancouver lawyer Zool Suleman, who is representing one of Mata’s co-workers on a pro bono basis.
“There should be some way for a worker to have access to employment standards, CBSA protection and worker health and safety.
“Enforcement against employers must be a higher priority.”
It’s a system that has to change, and soon. For too long, unethical and grey market B.C. employers have been able to exploit gaping loopholes in federal and provincial immigration and temporary worker programs with impunity.
Employer violations that have made the news include:
•the notorious 2010 case of a Surrey forestry company that housed 25 Congolese workers in a container near Golden, then failed to pay or feed them appropriately;
•the recent $1.3 million settlement paid by Denny’s Restaurants to end a class action suit that charged the employer with charging improper fees and failing to pay overtime and expenses;
•the HD Mining and Dehua coal mine controversy, which triggered a federal review of the Temporary Foreign Worker program.
Under the law, employers who hire undocumented workers can face fines of up to $50,000 and two years in jail. Yet only two charges were laid last year, and one was subsequently withdrawn. The CBSA secured only five convictions in 2010.
Pressure is building on both Ottawa and Victoria for action.
In the wake of the “reality TV” raid, the BC Regional Council of Carpenters (BRCC) called on federal Public Safety minister Vic Toews to crack down on employers, particularly in the construction industry, so “the contractors and subcontractors who devise these illegal scheme are arrested, fined and serve jail sentences.”
Although Phil Hochstein, of the Independent Contractors and Business Association, said his members have no complaints with the current arrangements, the BRCC’s Wayne Cox said use of undocumented workers is rampant in home construction.
These contractors pay cash so workers can avoid taxes, do nothing to contribute to skills training and undercut legitimate operators.
Provincial action is required to provide a measure of protection to workers. Alberta has shown the way with two storefront complaint bureaus and a global toll-free number to offer advice and hear complaints.
Such a hotline would have been a godsend to a Filipino woman employed as a chambermaid in Dawson Creek. Cynthia Centeno recently won an Employment Standards Branch order requiring her labour recruiter to refund $5,360 illegally levied to obtain the job.
Centeno was victimized by another Filipino woman, a nurse in Grande Prairie, Alberta, who went into the immigration business without even completing a basic course offered by the Immigration Consultants of Canada.
With as many as 50,000 temporary workers now in the province, more than half in rural and remote areas, it’s likely that Centeno’s case is just the tip of the iceberg.
For the sake of these hard-working employees, and the majority of their bosses, who are adhering to the law, it’s time to back up Canada’s laws with enforcement. •
