Canadian Labour Reporter

"The government of Canada is willfully ignoring the law and giving up on qualified, ready-to- work Canadian workers," he said. "We cannot sit by and watch while foreign workers are being given work permits and are paid as little as $2 an hour to work on ships in Canadian waters." In documents filed in Federal Court, the SIU alleges the Canada Border Services Agency granted temporary foreign work permits to crews operating in domestic waters over Canadian sailors. In total, they have 42 appli- cations and have also named Minister of Citizenship and Im- migration Chris Alexander and Minister of Public Safety Canada Steven Blaney in the suit. The union also alleges that, since 2013, 4,000 temporary work permits have been issued by the government for domestic ship- ping. Though recent changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Pro- gram also modified the Labour Market Impact Assessment — a requirement that employers show there are no qualified Canadian workers available to do the job — the border agency has not been following the rules, the union said. C-10 exemption Further complicating the mat- ter is the C-10 exemption, which would allow foreign-flagged ves- sels to hire foreign crews if they can show a "significant benefit" to Canada which, according to the federal government, also covers trade agreements such as NAF- TA. There are already laws in place designed to make sure temporary work permits are not issued when qualified Canadians are available, according to the union's lawyer, David Borins. So any work permits issued to non-Canadian crews on the for- eign ships named in the applica- tion were improperly granted, he said. "The SIU hopes the court will decide that the temporary work permits issued to non-Canadian workers crewing these flag-of- convenience ships were improp- erly granted, either because there was no basis for an exemption to a Labour Market Impact Assess- ment or, if Labour Market Impact Assessments were conducted, that the Labour Market Impact Assessments were not properly conducted and, therefore, are in- valid," Borins said. As for the C-10 exemption, the provision is being abused by those who issue licences, he said. "C-10 exemptions from La- bour Market Impact Assessments were never intended to be used on a routine basis to expedite and grant work permits to temporary foreign workers," he said. "It is particularly troubling that exemptions are being granted when many of the foreign crews working in Canada under Ca- nadian work permits are paid a fraction of the minimum wage required by the Canada Labour Code." Borins went on to say the union is in no way involved in the ex- emption process. In fact, the SIU has made it clear in the past it can provide crews for vessels the Ca- nadian Transportation Agency has licensed to work in Canada. "The clear availability of Cana- dian crew makes it particularly difficult to understand why C-10 exemptions would ever be justifi- able," Borins said. The Amalthea case Three foreign-flagged oil tankers have been named in the SIU's law- suit — the Amalthea, the Sparto and the New England. For the former vessel, the SIU was able to provide documents showing certain temporary foreign work- ers were hired at a rate of $2 per hour, whereas the prevailing wage in Canada is around $21 per hour. The Amalthea is a Greek tanker owned by Suncor Energy, which applied for a licence to transport 450,000 barrels of crude oil from Texas for discharge at different ports in North America, includ- ing Montreal and around the At- lantic provinces, according to the Canadian Transportation Agen- cy. Both Citizenship and Immi- gration Canada and Public Safety Canada declined opportunities for comment on the specific case, but a government spokesperson said work permit applications are looked at on a case-by-case basis and border agents are well- trained to make such determina- tions. And Canadian Transporta- tion Agency staff gave notice of the Amalthea's application to "the Canadian marine industry," according to the federal govern- ment's website, and because "no Canadian ships were offered," it was determined there were no suitable domestic ships available to perform the job. When the SIU learned the Amalthea had been granted a li- cence, it contacted the vessel's Canadian ship agent to offer up a suitable domestic crew, but its calls went unreturned. "Instead, temporary work per- mits were issued to all crew on the Amalthea allowing them to work in Canada," Borins said. While the temporary for- eign worker program has been reformed since coming under fire early last year, the goal of the union and the legal challenge is proper application and compli- ance with existing immigration and labour laws, said Borin. "The SIU hopes to see Canadi- an sailors given the first opportu- nity to work in their own country rather than allowing those jobs to go to foreign crews." 7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER NEWS < from pg. 1 Employers exempt if 'significant benefit' can be shown Photo: Chris Wattie (Reuters) Immigration minister Chris Alexander (above) and public safety minister Steven Blaney have been named in the SIU's application for judicial review, alleging temporary foreign workers are being unjustly hired.

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