Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CANADIAN HR REPORTER WEEKLY Recently, the federal government increased inspections of job sites that are involved in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Canada's Employment and Social Development Department (ESDC) targeted 1,600 "high-risk" employers, according to media reports, and more than 1,340 on-site inspections have been launched or are in varying stages of investigation. e clampdown — which follows auditor general Michael Ferguson's 2017 report that showed a lack of supervision over the TFWP — is long overdue, according to one immigration lawyer. "e government is recognizing that there is a real problem with abuse and exploitation of workers in the program," said Susanna Quail of Allevato Quail & Roy in Vancouver. "ey are very vulnerable because low-skilled workers are on closed work permits and they can't work for any other employer than the employer named on the work permit, which means that if they're experiencing abuse or exploitation, it's very difficult for them to leave that employment relationship." Complaints about the system were the most likely cause of the crackdown, said Klaudios Mustakas, immigration consultant at Mustakas & Associates in Kitchener, Ont. "And then it would start an investigation, and if it looks as if it might be industry-wide or it might be there are some problems with the system or with the approvals, then they're going to start doing more checks to make sure that the employers meet their commitments," he said. "Obviously, the government probably has decided it's time that we do some thorough spot-checks to make sure that employers are meeting their commitments that they had made in order to bring those people in." But Dennis Brazolot isn't sure what the government is hoping to uncover in the program, which began under the previous Conservative government. "In terms of the political side of things, the (Liberal) government probably came in with the 'If-it-ain't-broke- don't-fix-it attitude' and it didn't seem to be broken," said the immigration consultant at Brazolot Migration Group in Hudson, Que. "Employers that I have talked with, 99.9 per cent of all of them are in compliance — they follow the rules, they follow the regulations." Bad employers exist and they should be exposed, he said, but sometimes temporary foreign workers aren't completely clear on what to expect when they begin working in Canada. "Some are justified, but you also have some of the foreign workers come over who expect the labour laws to be the same as where they come from. at causes issues," said Brazolot. "We get some other clients who have come from very socialist countries that expect everything to be in accordance to what their laws were and the employer might say, 'I don't pay that,' and they've gone to the labour board saying, 'I've been mistreated because he didn't give me half an hour for personal reasons.'" Several problems with program A big part of the problem stems from the labour market impact assessment (LMIA), which is meant to show there is a need for a foreign worker to fill a job, and no Canadian worker is available to do the job. "e program itself is flawed and then the audit program process itself is flawed," said Brian Dingle, a partner in the business immigration group at Borden Ladner Gervais in Toronto. "It just prints money for Employers hiring temporary foreign workers face inspections 'e government is recognizing there is a real problem with abuse and exploitation': Immigration lawyer BY JOHN DUJAY Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. HR News at Your Fingertips THE LATEST NEWS THE BEST COMMENTARY DELIVERED WEEKLY FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Visit www.hrreporter.com/ canadian-hr-newswire

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