Worker type: Care Workers

Care WorkersFarm Workers

Submissions to Gender Wage Gap Strategy Committee

Read in full HERE.

To understand how the gender wage gap affects women migrant workers it is important, first, to understand who women migrant workers are and what are the social dynamics that characterize their precarity in Ontario. Second, it is important to understand the legal frameworks that institutionalize their precarity in ways that very predictably leave them subject to intense gender discrimination, wage theft and other rights violations that deepen the wage gap. Third, it is important to recognize that these dynamics of systemic discrimination demand a response that is equally systemic and multi-dimensional. A wide range of changes need to be made and need to work together to eliminate the precarity that enables and sustains employer behaviour that impoverishes migrant women workers.

In the case of agricultural workers, research and anecdotal evidence from our member organizations has shown that many women participating in the program are single mothers from rural regions who have limited economic opportunities in their home communities. (Encalada Grez, 2011). In the case of domestic workers, research and anecdotal evidence from our member organizations has shown that women are single mothers, or married but in either case are primary caregivers.

Women migrant workers that we work with see labour migration as a survival strategy that provides opportunities to support themselves and their families that are impossible to access in their home contexts which are often characterized by unemployment, underemployment, underdevelopment, civil unrest and/or home governments that have actively adopted labour export policies as their dominant economic strategy. This effectively forces women into migration for work and produces a precarity that means women can be coerced into enduring profoundly discriminatory treatment because of their need to maintain the employee relationship while in Canada. Research found that women in agriculture try to keep their jobs in Canada by increasing their productivity, attempting to outperform men and sometimes acquiescing to exploitative and sub-standard working and living conditions (Encalada Grez, 2011).

While in Canada, employers exert an astonishing intrusive degree of surveillance and supervision over women migrant workers’ non-working time. This surveillance and supervision exceeds even that imposed on male migrant workers and includes imposing stricter curfews, asserting greater control over their living conditions, and controlling social interactions. Romantic relationships are sometimes explicitly prohibited via contracts, and often implicitly prohibited. Pregnancy may result in termination or preclude a worker from being invited back in to the program. Harassment and violence by male co-workers and male employers often goes unreported. Harassment and violence as a result of the joint nexus of gender, racialization, and lack of permanent immigration status in towns, cities and communities where migrant workers are is also largely unreported.

The cumulative effects of these constraints gravely impacts women migrant workers wages that are often paid below or at minimum wage, lower than both their male counterparts and Canadian citizens. As the Closing the Gender Wage Gap: A Background Paper notes, racialized women face a gender wage gap of 36.8%. Additionally, we are aware that migrant workers, most of whom are restricted to working in low-waged industries or unable to assert their rights as a result of being undocumented, earn the absolute least amount of wages. While we have not been able to do a comprehensive analysis of the wages of migrant workers vis-à-vis the broader workforce, it is certain that racialized women with temporary or no immigration status earn even less than racialized women in general.

When looking at the legal frameworks, it is clear that the gender wage gap for women migrant workers is driven by a number of systemic dynamics that subject women migrant workers to low pay and that subject them to widespread practices of wage theft and other violations of workplace rights which deepen their wage disparity and isolation in the labour market.

Read in full HERE.

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Ontario Immigration Act – Submission to Standing Committee

Submission by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change to Standing Committee on Justice Policy of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

April 16, 2015

A comprehensive recruiter regulation system in Ontario requires legislation that is designed with a view to ending the practice of migrant workers paying fees to work in Ontario. Specific measures to this end include:

  1. Require compulsory licensing of all recruiters working in Ontario with a financial bond: Currently anyone can recruit migrant workers in Canada or abroad, charge them large fees, and either put them in contact with a Canadian employer or walk away without actually providing the job they promised. To counter the abuses inherent in this system, all recruiters in Ontario must be licensed, the list of licensed recruiters should be easily accessible online to migrant workers around the world, and the licensing should include a financial bond.
  2. Require compulsory registration of all migrant worker employers in Ontario: Employers choose which recruiters they work with, and are often aware of the fees being paid by migrant workers overseas or in Ontario. As such, as effective recruitment regulation process requires knowing which employers hire migrant workers in the province. Currently, Ontario depends on the federal government’s willingness to share information about employers that hire migrant workers. A compulsory and robust employer registration system is required for effective recruiter regulation.
  3. Hold recruiters and employers jointly financially liable for violating labour protections: This practice is already the law in Manitoba and other provinces and ensures that responsibility for violations is not passed to recruiters abroad. Instead, employers should be held accountable for working with appropriate recruiters (who should be licensed in Ontario) to ensure that migrant workers do not face abuse. This practice ensures predictability and certainty for employers, recruiters and migrant workers.

Click HERE to read our full submissions.

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RELEASE: Notorious 4-and-4 rule repealed; migrant workers need permanent status, not tinkering

MEDIA RELEASE

Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights Canada www.migrantrights.ca

Notorious 4-and-4 rule repealed; migrant workers need permanent status, not tinkering

Feel free to use pictures and background: http://no4and4campaign.tumblr.com/

Canada,  December 14, 2016 - Since April 2011, migrant worker groups have organized against the 4-and-4 rule, as part of a broader campaign for open work permits and permanent status on landing. The 4-and-4 rule required
migrant workers to leave after four years of cumulative employment and banned them from returning for four years. 

Over 15 cities organized protest and actions in March 2015 <http://no4and4campaign.tumblr.com/Events> as a lead up to the imposition of the 4-and-4 rule which uprooted tens of thousands of migrant workers, and caused mass deportations. Nearly 4,000 people signed petitions
<https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-mass-deportation-of-thousands-of-immigrants-on-april-1st>.
Since October 2015, the Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights Canada (CMWRC) has campaigned for the overturn of this rule
<http://migrantrights.ca/en/demands/>. On December 13th, the notorious 4-and-4 rule was repealed.

“This repeal is a first step which came about because migrant workers and their allies organized against an unjust rule that resulted in thousands of deportations and migrants becoming undocumented,” says Syed Hussan of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “We need permanent status for migrant workers who stayed here undocumented and for those that were uprooted and forced out, for this change to be really meaningful.”

“There were more than thirty of us who reached our 4 year limit and we fought an uphill battle to stay in Quebec and apply for permanent status,” explains Francisco Mootoo of the Temporary Foreign Workers Association. “Many other migrant workers impacted were unable to do so, so it's essential that all migrant workers get permanent residence upon arrival.”

“Dozens of our members have been forced to become undocumented or leave Canada because of this badly planned, and badly executed law that seems to have been designed by the previous government simply to show that they were
being hard on migrant workers,” adds Anna Malla of the Caregivers’ Action Centre. “Repealing and tinkering is not enough. We need a total overhaul of the system which begins with ensuring permanent status on landing for migrant workers now and a regularization program for workers who have become undocumented.”

In yesterday’s announcement, the Federal Government promised to expand ‘pathways to citizenship’. The Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights Canada (CMWRC) believes that ‘pathways’ are a euphemism for maintaining unjust
temporariness for low-waged and racialized workers. A pathway is a two stage process, where migrant workers must first complete a temporary sentence of abuse and injustice before a few are selected to compete for permanent status. 

Low-waged and racialized people deemed to be doing ‘low-skilled’ work deserve permanent status on landing, just as much as those deemed to be doing ‘high skilled’ work.

Migrant workers from across Canada called for a repeal of the 4-and-4 rule and most importantly permanent status on landing in the recent review of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program in Ottawa.

National Media Contacts
Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights Canada – Syed Hussan – Migrant Workers Alliance for Change – 1-416-453-3632

Pour le français/Québec: Francisco Mootoo, Association des travailleuses et travailleurs étrangers temporaires: (514) 793-2672

Atlantic Canada – Josie Baker – Cooper Institute- 1-902-315-2705

British Columbia – Vancouver – Mildred German – Migrante BC
   –1-604-879-5850

Ontario – Chris Ramsaroop – Justicia for Migrant Workers / Harvesting Freedom Campaign –1-647-834-4932

Prairies – Manitoba – Diwa Marcelino – Migrante Canada – 204-218-710
Care WorkersFarm Workers

Decent Work, Decent Lives – What’s in the Bills?

We have a real opportunity to effect change

This spring, we have a real opportunity to pass laws that will improve our wages and working conditions. There are now several important bills being considered by Members of Provincial Parliament. But we need to work together to make sure that these bills are strengthened and passed before the Legislative Assembly breaks for the summer. Even if an election is called, this is a recipe for change that we can all get behind.

Here’s what’s at stake:

Prohibiting recruitment fees for migrant workers

In order to work in Ontario, migrant workers pay unscrupulous recruiters tens of thousands of dollars in fees; many have little choice but to borrow the money. This debt makes migrant workers – and their families – vulnerable to loan sharks and unprincipled employers and makes it even more dangerous for migrant workers to speak out.

  • Bill 146 extends the ban on recruitment fees from live-in caregivers to all migrant workers.
  • Bill 161 gives Minister of Citizenship and Immigration the power to create registries for employers and recruiters but does not specify any details,
  • Bill 161 unfairly excludes low-waged migrant workers from access to immigration status

We can strengthen Bills 146 and modify Bill 161 by ensuring that:

  • There is a proactive and public system to license recruiters and register employers who hire migrant workers;
  • Recruiters are required to put forward a mandatory financial security in form of a bond, irrevocable letter of credit or deposit before being licensed;
  • Recruiters and employers are jointly and severally liable for any and all exploitative recruitment practices in Canada and abroad;
  • Employers are prohibited from charging any fees to migrant workers and that the onus of fee non-payment be on the recruiter, not the migrant worker;
  • The time limit on complaints be at least five years so that workers can seek justice after their contracts finish;
  • All migrant workers coming in to Ontario have access to full immigration status, access to social benefits, protections from reprisals and meaningful labour protections.

Maintaining the value of the minimum wage

For the past four years, the minimum wage has been frozen at $10.25. Meanwhile, the real value of minimum wage has been eroded by rising costs.

  • Bill 165 increases the minimum wage by the rate of inflation each year and sets up a process for reviewing the minimum wage every five years.

We can strengthen Bill 165 by ensuring that:

  • The minimum wage brings full-time workers 10% above the poverty line and be assessed regularly against this criterion; and
  • Reviews of the minimum wage be every two years, instead of every five years;
  • All minimum wage provisions apply to all workers, regardless of their age or occupation, or their student or citizenship status.

Regulating temporary agencies (temp agencies)

Temp agency workers typically earn 40% less than their co-workers hired directly by the company. Agency workers receive less pay, fewer or no benefits, little protection against employment rights violations and no protection against termination. Despite their temporary status, agency workers often work for months and years beside workers doing exactly the same work.

  • Bill 146 makes temp agencies and the client company jointly responsible for paying workers’ unpaid wages and overtime pay;
  • Bill 146 ensures the client company is responsible for workplace injury and accident costs involving agency workers;
  • Bill 159 stipulates that agency workers must receive 80% of the total wages [SS2] paid by the client company to the temp agency.
  • Bill 159 limits the proportion of agency workers in a company’s workforce to no more than 25%; small businesses are exempted from this provision;
  • Bill 159 obligates all temp agencies to have a license to operate in Ontario;

We can strengthen Bills 146 and 159 by ensuring that:

  • Temp agencies workers receive the same wages and working conditions afforded to workers hired directly by the client company.
  • Client companies are jointly responsible for all monetary and non-monetary entitlements under the ESA, not just wages and overtime.
  • Section 74.8(1)* is repealed to eliminate provisions by which client companies are prevented from hiring temp agency workers directly.
  • Temp agency workers are hired directly by the client company after a certain period of time and are protected from unfair dismissals by either the temp agency or the client company.

Curbing wage theft

All too often, Ontario workers work hard but don’t get paid. This is wage theft. A recent Workers’ Action Centre survey found that 1 in 3 workers in low wage, precarious jobs experienced wage theft in the last 5 years. Wage theft takes the form of unpaid wages, unpaid vacation pay or overtime pay as well as employers’ misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Interns – even those who are paid – are also vulnerable to wage theft. Within the hospitality sector, employers who withhold tips and gratuities from their employees or who require their employees to forfeit their tips and gratuities are engaging in wage theft.

  • Bill 146 extends the time limits for workers claim unpaid wages from 6 months to 2 years
  • Bill 146 eliminates the inadequate $10,000 limit on the amount of unpaid wages that can be claimed;
  • Bill 146 requires employers to provide each employee with a poster on their rights under the Employment Standards Act and, if requested, requires the employer to provide translated versions of the poster;
  • Bill 146 sets out new rules for employer self-audits;
  • Bill 49 prohibits employers from forcing employees to forfeit their tips and gratuities; and
  • Bill 170 asserts that individuals receiving training be protected by certain provisions of the Employment Standards Act.

We can strengthen Bill 146 by ensuring that:

  • Time limits for filing claims are extended to five years for migrant workers;
  • The onus is on the employer – not the worker – for providing translations of the employee rights poster;
  • The provision to provide an employee rights poster should come into effect immediately;
  • The elimination of the monetary cap and the extension of time limits on unpaid wage claims come into effect immediately upon passage of Bill 146.

Having a voice at work

More people are finding themselves in part-time, contract work, often juggling two or three jobs. By making it easier for us to join unions and work together to improve wages and working conditions, we are better able to turn bad jobs into better ones.

  • Bill 129 brings forward a number of important changes that would make it easier for us to form unions and have a voice at work.

Take action!

Although some of these bills need important changes to ensure we all have the strongest protection possible, these bills provide us with an opportunity we have not seen in a long time. By working together to get these bills strengthened and passed, we can lay the groundwork for decent work and decent lives for all of us.

That’s why we are calling on you to help get these bills strengthened and passed before the legislature adjourns for the summer – or for an election.

Can you join us and help us get these bills strengthened and passed?

  1. Click here now to send a message to your MPP.
  2. Organize an action in your community on April 14th – a provincial day of action for decent pay and decent work.
  3. Call us or email us to find out how you can make a deputation to a legislative committee – coordinator@migrantworkersalliance.org
  4. Find out more about the issues:

New bill pushes government for better protections of temp agency workers
What’s in Bill 146?
New bill to index minimum wage to cost of living
Migrant workers respond to proposed Ontario law
Towards a Fair Ontario Immigration Act

Care Workers

Ending migrant worker exploitation by recruiters

Key Issues

Migrant workers are paying up to an equivalent of two years’ salaries in fees in their home countries to unscrupulous recruiters and agencies to work in Canada. To pay these fees, entire families go into debt.

Often when workers arrive here, work conditions and wages are not as they were promised or agreed to.

With families back home in debt, workers are afraid to complain about ill treatment by bad bosses here. In some cases when workers complained about recruitment fees, they faced abuse and deportation. Recruiters have been known to punish entire communities by blacklisting their ability to come to Canada.

Employers pass the buck to recruiters in Canada, who in turn claim that its recruiters in sending countries that are the real culprits. Ontario does not have effective enforcement tools to hold recruiters and employers accountable.

In 2009, migrant worker members of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change succeeded in passing the Employment Protections for Foreign Nationals Act (EPFNA) which banned charging recruitment fees from caregivers.

The way forward.

We expect Ontario to ban recruitment fees and bar the seizure of documents from all migrant workers rather than just live-in caregivers as is currently mandated in the EPFNA filling in part of the legislative gap. However, two-thirds of the caregivers the Caregivers Action Centre surveyed after EPFNA came into force paid fees averaging $3,275.  EPFNA relies heavily on worker complaints rather than proactive enforcement making it a weak legislative tool.

Register and license employers and recruiters: The Ontario and Federal government do not keep track of recruiters. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and other provinces are moving towards registering employers and licensing recruiters so that provinces have direct jurisdiction over them. By licensing recruiters, provinces have the ability to carry out targeted enforcement, release a list of accredited recruiters that employers and workers can access and be able to track recruiters that break the law without having to rely solely on workers’ speaking out. For Ontario to ensure recruitment fees are not collected, it must register employers and license recruiters.

Joint and several liability: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and other provinces are moving towards asking for lines of credit or bonds put up by recruiters and employers and holding employers and recruiters jointly responsible for fees charged all the way down the recruitment pipeline. By holding all parties equally financially responsible, provinces are able to enforce a ban on recruitment fees and ensure that workers charged fees are able to recover them. This works hand in hand with recruiter licensing as employers are able to work with approved recruiters and avoid worker abuse.

Anti-reprisals mechanisms: Migrant workers must be able to make complaints about lost fees after their contracts are complete (up to four years) so that they don’t have to choose between keeping their jobs and recovering fees paid abroad. Community members must be able to make complaints about unfair recruiters and employers and provisions must be in place to give access to temporary resident permits to migrant workers while they have Ministry of Labour complaints pending so they do not get deported while waiting for a decision.

Further down the line, inter-provincial and bi-lateral agreements with other states must be established to ensure that recruiters do not skip provinces after charging monies and stop offering fake jobs in Canada that don’t exist.  Recruitment fees are one part of the puzzle. Migrant workers deserve equal wages, healthy jobs, decent housing, and a strong voice. Most of all migrant workers deserve the opportunity to have full immigration status on landing.

Care WorkersFarm Workers

Recruitment Fees Banned for All Migrant Workers; Comprehensive Changes Still Needed

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Dec. 4, 2013) – Banning recruitment fees for all migrant workers; removing the arbitrary monetary cap on reclaiming unpaid wages and tougher penalties for employment standards violations means that migrant workers gain a few more protections today, but comprehensive changes are still needed says the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), Canada’s largest migrant worker advocacy coalition.

“After migrant workers exposed abuses by recruiters in 2009, we won protections for live-in caregivers but other migrant workers were unnecessarily excluded,” explains Liza Draman, spokesperson for the Caregivers Action Centre, member organization of MWAC. “Today after four years of migrant workers speaking out about their experiences, recruitment fees have finally been banned for all migrant workers.”

“Unfortunately over two-thirds of the caregivers we surveyed after the law came into effect in 2009 still paid fees,” adds Draman. “That’s because these protections rely on complaints and not proactive enforcement. For there to be meaningful protections, Ontario must follow provinces like Manitoba and implement employer and recruiter registration, licensing and regulation including joint and several financial liability.”

“I paid $1500 in Honduras to come work here in Canada. Here I worked in an unsafe job at a mushroom farm for a year to be able to pay back that debt,” stated Juan Miguel, a temporary foreign worker leader with Justicia for Migrant Workers, member organization of the MWAC. “On top of that, my employer regularly stole my wages and I couldn’t file a claim with the Ministry or I would have been fired and sent back home. I had to wait until I finished my contract, went home and came back with another employer but by then I had exceeded the current 6 month limit on claims. Today’s changes are an important step, but migrant workers need much stronger protections to ensure we have equal rights on the job.”

“Getting rid of the unfair $10,000 limit for employment standards claims and giving workers 2 years to file claims is a significant victory for Ontario workers, especially migrant workers” says Senthil Thevar, a former migrant worker and a spokesperson of MWAC member organization Workers Action Centre who is owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. “If these laws had existed a few years ago, I could have claimed the thousands of dollars of my unpaid wages immediately rather than being forced to go to court.”

“Migrant workers are not inherently vulnerable, its provincial laws that exclude us from basic protections that make us so,” insists Draman. “Many migrant workers are women and racialized people who are being denied immigration status by the Federal Government. Ontario must step up. We are urging Ontario’s government to sit down with migrant workers and update labour laws and other legislation. It is high time that migrant worker achieve the same protections and benefits as other Ontarians.”

Kyla Hernandez, a Filipino migrant worker who paid $5,000 to work in a vegetable packaging company in Windsor, ON, and spoke out against recruitment fees in 2008 adds, “Today’s labour reforms are a result of the advocacy efforts of migrant workers who took to the streets and held politicians accountable for the 19th century working and living conditions that we face in 21st century Ontario. However this victory is bittersweet. Many of our friends who fought for this have been terminated or deported for standing up for their rights. They will not enjoy the fruits of their labour. We owe it to them to continue the struggle and ensure that we are no longer treated as second class citizens.”

Source: www.migrantworkersalliance.org

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change includes Alliance of South Asian Aid Prevention, Asian Community Aids Services, Caregivers Action Centre, Industrial Accident Victims’ Group of Ontario, Justicia for Migrant Workers, KAIROS, Legal Aid Windsor, Migrante Ontario, No One Is Illegal – Toronto, Parkdale Community Legal Services, Social Planning Toronto, Unifor, United Food and Commercial Workers and the Workers’ Action Centre.

Media Liaison
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Syed Hussan, Coordinator
416 453 3632
coordinator@migrantworkersalliance.org