Canadian Labour Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER news Credit: Andy Clark (Reuters) Following accusations three McDonald's were abusing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Minister of Employment and Social Development Jason Kenney (above) launched an investigation and suspended foreign worker permit applications there, pending the outcome of the inspection. important part of their business, and without them, many of them certainly would not be able to grow — and many of them would simply cease to exist," he added. At the end of the day, Trus- cott explained, there are busi- nesses that have searched high and low and found wanting of a qualified employee, so they look to the foreign worker system. To streamline that process and weed out any would-be misuse of the program, he suggested strict penalties. "It would make sense to create some kind of credited or expe- dited system for those workers that are following the rules, that can show that there's a persistent shortage of qualified people to hire — they should have contin- ued access to the program," he said. "And for those businesses that have been misusing the pro- gram, they absolutely need to be treated very seriously because the actions of the few are having a huge impact on the situation for many entrepreneurs, many small businesses, who are struggling to find enough qualified people to work in their business." The concern has seeped into other provinces, according to Irene Lanzinger, secretary-trea- surer at the British Columbia Fed- eration of Labour. "It particularly happens where wages are high, for example, Fort McMurray, the oil patch — where wages are being driven up by high cost of housing, high wages in the resource sector and then employ- ers decide they aren't going to raise their wages to attract local residents, and they go to the tem- porary foreign worker program," Lanzinger explained. Often, foreign workers are at- tractive because they are paid lower wages, she added, calling the system antiquated, likening it to "indentured servitude." The number of temporary foreign workers, especially low-skilled workers in the service sector, has skyrocketed, Lanzinger said, calling for better enforcement of the rules. "The federal government should get rid of these categories that bring in low-skilled workers to get into service sector jobs," she explained. "There is no reason for those categories to exist, and we have seen employers abuse the rules around these categories… We think there's a wage gap — not a worker shortage." She also suggested foreign workers who legally get jobs in the country enjoy the same rights as their Canadian counterparts. That includes information centres where staff can learn about their rights under the program, better enforcement of the rules and a path to permanent immigration. McDonald's Canada launched its own investigation and is cur- rently working through the process of terminating its rela- tionship with the British Colum- bia-based franchisee. "We do not tolerate infractions of any kind — intended or unin- tended — against any employees," said a statement from the compa- ny. "Our commitment to employ- ees is to always do the right thing and with integrity…Temporary foreign workers represent a very small proportion of our national workforce. We have more than 85,000 employees at McDonald's franchised and corporate loca- tions across Canada, and only four per cent of those employees are temporary foreign workers." The consequences for com- panies that employ questionable hiring practices when it comes to the temporary foreign worker system can be drastic. Should a federal investigation show an em- ployer falsified information, La- bour Market Opinions (approval by the government that indicates no Canadian workers are avail- able to perform the job and a for- eign worker is needed to fill the position) can be stripped away. "Our government will not tol- erate any abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Any employer found to have broken the rules will face serious conse- quences," said Minister of Em- ployment and Social Develop- ment Jason Kenney. "Our message to employers is clear and unequiv- ocal — Canadians must always be the first in line for available jobs." Immediately following the ac- cusations against the McDon- ald's restaurants, Employment and Social Development Canada launched an investigation. Inves- tigators from the federal depart- ment did an on-site inspection at the Victoria location and all La- bour Market Opinions and work permits in process for the fran- chise were suspended, pending the outcome of the investigation. "I have reasonable grounds to believe that the employer pro- vided Employment and Social Development Canada with false, misleading or inaccurate infor- mation," Kenney said, adding that "if the investigation deter- mines that this franchise owner broke the rules of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, I will permanently revoke their exist- ing Labour Market Opinions and prevent them from hiring tempo- rary foreign workers." Foreign workers are indentured servants: Labour < from pg. 1

• Cover