Temporary foreign worker agency Actyl Group sues McDonald’s Canada
A company that recruits temporary foreign workers on behalf of Canadian employers has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s Canada, alleging breach of contract and defamation of character. Graeme Young, the Manitoba lawyer representing Actyl Group Inc., which has recruited temporary foreign workers for McDonald’s in Western Canada, told CBC News the lawsuit was filed in a Winnipeg court Thursday. In the company’s statement of claim, Actyl alleges McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Ltd. breached its contract when it failed to pay the agency certain “service fees” for immigration services it provided the franchisees. [Read more…]Think Long Term on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Mayor Naheed Nenshi should be applauded for his recent comments about Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. He not only pointed out that the federal Conservative government’s recent changes to the program will not work for our city, but that it is profoundly un-Canadian “[t]o treat people like commodities that come here for two years and serve us our coffee in the mornings.” The government created major problems for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program when it began to loosen the rules in 2006; it created an approval process with little oversight that largely amounted to rubber stamping applications, which has directly led to Canadians losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers. [Read more…]Labour program for migrant workers faces gender discrimination claim
Allowing Canadian farmers to choose whether they want men or women from Mexico to work for them as seasonal agricultural workers amounts to gender discrimination, a prominent union is arguing. In a complaint this week, the United Food and Commercial Workers union is calling on Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal to investigate the situation. According to the union, women comprise on average less than 4 per cent of the thousands of migrant agriculture workers who come to Canada each year under the seasonal agricultural workers program. A similar complaint was made in Quebec earlier this month, and another one will be filed in British Columbia in a few weeks, said union spokesman Stan Raper. [Read more…]Tories strike another blow to Canada’s once-humane immigration policy
Last week, the federal government made a small change to Canada’s immigration rules, lowering the maximum age of a “dependant child” and eliminating any recourse for immigrant or refugee parents seeking an exception to the new definition. It’s a subtle shift, to be sure, but its subtlety belies the cruelty of its future impact and the utter lack of human feeling that underlies it and so much of our recent immigration policy.
Until this month, any unmarried child of 21 or younger could qualify as a dependant under Canada’s immigration rules and be automatically accepted along with his or her parents. Accommodations could be made, too, for full-time students older than 21 who were financially dependent on their family. But as of Aug. 1, the federal government lowered the maximum age to 18 and eliminated all exceptions. [Read more…]
New LMIA Process Introduced To Replace LMOs
In the face of major changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and Employment and Social Development Canada (EDSC) are retiring the old Labour Market Opinion (LMO) process in favour of a new, more rigid procedure.
At a press conference on June 20, CIC Minister Chris Alexander and ESDC Minister Jason Kenney introduced the new Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to replace the LMO effective immediately.
While few details are available about the new LMIA process as of yet, Kenney and Alexander made it clear that the LMIA would be much austere than its predecessor, as Kenney described the new LMIA as “more comprehensive and rigorous.” [Read more…]
Changes to Temporary Foreign Workers Program could have permanent negative effects
CARIBOU – For the past four years, North Nova Seafoods in Caribou has used the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Without it, general manager Mike Duffy said the processing plant couldn’t function at full potential. “Prior to the arrival of the TFWP, North Nova Seafoods was only able to operate at a capacity of 65 per cent due to a shortage of workers despite continuous advertising of job vacancies.” For some businesses, such as North Nova Seafoods, access to labour outside Canada is an important part of day-to-day operations. That’s why changes to the TFWP handed down from the federal government have Duffy scratching his head. [Read more…]Industry News
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