ALF V1

2014 Backgrounder: Construction Trades ATIP Requests

Backgrounder Issued with AFL News Release: Sep 26 Prentice plan to re-open TFW floodgates would be bad news for working Albertans

2014 Backgrounder: ATIP Documents on Employers with TFW-Dominated Workforces

Backgrounder Issued with AFL News Release: Sep 26 Prentice plan to re-open TFW floodgates would be bad news for working Albertans

Documents released by AFL show TFWs are being used to suppress wages in oil sands-related construction; some businesses fill more than half their jobs with TFWs

Edmonton – Internal government documents paint a clear picture of the negative consequences for working Albertans if Premier Jim Prentice is successful in convincing the federal government to re-open the TFW floodgates.

The documents, obtained by the Alberta Federation of Labour through federal access to information requests, show thousands of Alberta-based businesses have been disproportionately relying on Temporary Foreign Workers — many with workforces that are more than 50 per cent TFWs. They also show many Alberta businesses have been granted work permits that allow them to pay TFWs far below the rate offered to Canadians.

“Rather than working on the side of businesspeople who want to use TFWs to suppress wages and displace Canadians, the Premier should be taking the side of working Albertans who have bills to pay and kids to raise,” AFL president Gil McGowan said. “When it comes to making decisions about the future of the TFW program, he has to stop forming his opinions based exclusively on conversations he’s had with wealthy businessmen. Ordinary working people have a huge stake in all of this – their interests and their opinions cannot be ignored.”

The documents show that in 2013 there were 2,578 businesses nationwide whose workforces were more than 30 per cent TFWs – the majority of which were in Alberta. In the same year, 1,123 businesses had workforces that were more than 50 per cent TFWs. Again, the majority of these were in Alberta.

“There are a lot of fast food franchises on this list, but there are also a lot of big names in industries like construction and energy,” McGowan said. “Albertans deserve to know why the federal government thinks it’s okay for companies like Kiewet, Stuart Olson, Lafarge and Ensign Drilling to fill more than 30 per cent of their jobs with TFWs. And I think Canadians in places like Ontario and Quebec deserve to why the federal government is letting companies like Facebook, Amazon, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Infosys fill more than 50 per cent of their jobs with TFWs.”

McGowan says the list also raises serious concerns about the role being played by foreign state-owned corporations in the oil sands. More than half of the workers employed in Alberta by companies like Sinopec (a state-owned oil corporation from China) and Samjin (a subsidiary of Korea’s national oil company) are TFWs.

In addition to the list of businesses that use TFWs to fill more than 30 and 50 per cent of their jobs, the AFL also released documents showing that many construction companies in Alberta have been using TFWs to suppress the wages of tradespeople.

“It’s bad enough when businesses in the fast food industry are allowed to use TFWs to suppress wages, but when you start seeing the same thing happening with welders, ironworkers and electricians it becomes clear that the situation has gotten completely out of hand. These are the kind of jobs that form the backbone of Alberta’s middle class. Attacks on these jobs simply cannot be tolerated,” McGowan said.

Over the last two years, many work permits have been granted that allowed construction companies in Alberta to hire Temporary Foreign Workers at wages below those paid to Canadians. In some cases, the approved wages have fallen dramatically below the prevailing wage rate.

“A company called Supreme International was given approval to pay 28 TFW welders $19.25 an hour, which is $10.75 below the prevailing wage for welders in Alberta, and only about half of what a Canadian welder makes in Fort McMurray. Kiewet Energy Construction was given TFW permits for 100 industrial electricians and 100 ironworkers without even disclosing how much those TFWs would be paid,” said McGowan. “In June, the federal government introduced changes that will make it harder for low-wage employers to get access to TFWs. That’s a step in the right direction. But what these documents show is that the problem is not solved; it’s just moving up the wage ladder.”

McGowan has sent a letter to Premier Prentice urging him not to give into pressure from self-interested business owners who want to maintain easy access to exploitable TFWs. In the letter, McGowan reminds Prentice that too many construction companies have used TFWs to suppress wages, displace Canadians and ignore their responsibility to train the next generation of home-grown apprentices.

AFL Backgrounder:  Construction Trades Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Requests

AFL Backgrounder: ATIP Documents on Employees with TFW-Dominated Workforces

ATIP A-2014-00391: Canadian employers with a workforce of over 30% Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) and Canadian employers with a workforce composed of over 50% or more of Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs)   NOTE: A list of Canadian employers with a workforce of over 30% Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) starts on page 132 (page 137 of the pdf), and a list of Canadian employers with a workforce composed of over 50% or more of Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) starts on page 160 (page 166 of the pdf) of linked PDF

ATIP A-2014-00273: A list of all Labour Market Opinions issued May 1, 2012 - June 20, 2014 in Alberta by region

ATIP-A-2014-00074: Prevailing wage rates (or other wage rates, as used to adjudicate LMOs), for NOCs requested, by region from January 1, 2009 – March 31, 2014

MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.218.4351 (cell)
or via e-mail [email protected]

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Candidates for Premier Look to Open TFW Floodgates

PC Leadership contenders all buy into bogus labour shortage claims

Edmonton – Ric McIver is using bogus claims of a provincial labour shortage as a scare tactic in the race to become Alberta’s new premier.

Neither of his rivals, Jim Prentice nor Thomas Lukaszuk, has refuted the premise of his argument that the province needs more control over the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to give employers more access to cheap, disposable workers. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/politics/leadership+hopeful+McIver+urges+Alberta+solution/10029973/story.html

Read the full Fact Check here!

PC Leadership candidate misinformed about how much employers pay

Edmonton – Tory Leadership Hopeful Thomas Lukaszuk is incorrect in his assertion that employers are offering higher wages to attract workers.

At a Calgary Stampede pancake breakfast on Monday, the former Deputy Premier said: “We do have a bona fide shortage of workers and in certain parts of the province, like Bonnyville, Cold Lake, Fort McMurray, Hinton, and Edson. No matter how much employers pay, they can’t attract workers to entry-level positions.” This quote was reported on Global News (http://globalnews.ca/news/1437094/alberta-pc-leadership-hopefuls-work-pancake-circuit/)

Read the full Fact Check here!

“Government shouldn't be in the business of helping employers keep wages low,” says AFL

EDMONTON – An audit of the Temporary Foreign Worker program (TFWP) reveals that thousands of employers are being allowed to break the rules set up to stop employers from using TFWs to drive down wages.

The audit, conducted by the Alberta Federation of Labour, compared Statistics Canada’s prevailing regional wage rates to the approved wage rates from the approved applications of employers seeking to bring in Temporary Foreign Workers. The audit showed that employers were routinely allowed to pay TFWs minimum wage in industries and occupations that are supposed to pay higher rates.

“One of the major ‘fixes’ the Conservatives are suggesting to prevent the TFW program from putting Canadians out of work is a ‘wage floor’ for TFWs,” AFL president Gil McGowan said. “The documents show that the Harper government has regularly allowed employers to pay below-market wages, in contravention of the existing rules and all their empty promises. Why should Canadians believe them now?”

The results of the audit are shocking: of the 15,006 employers who were approved to bring in Temporary Foreign Workers, more than 14,500 were offering wages that were lower than what the government says these workers should be paid. The wages were below the prevailing wage rate anywhere from a few cents to $11.45 an hour too low.

“The government shouldn’t be in the business of helping employers keep wages low,” McGowan said. “If an employer is offering minimum wage, they’re clearly not trying very hard to find Canadian workers. I suspect that if they could have paid any less, they wouldn’t have hesitated.”

TFWP regulations give Minister Kenney’s department the power to deny work permits if wages offered a worker in the Program are below prevailing regional wages for that particular occupation.

“The government has the ability – and the duty – to deny these work permits. These applications clearly state the wages that employers are offering, and the government has documentation of the prevailing wage rates,” McGowan said. “The fact that they didn’t bother to cross reference applications to the appropriate wage rates is an abject dereliction of duty. It shows that there is no enforcement of the Temporary Foreign Worker program, and it shows you can’t take it at face value when Minister Jason Kenney’s talks big about a crackdown.”

AFL Temporary Foreign Worker Program – Report on Approvals at Minimum Wage, May, 2014

MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell)
or via e-mail [email protected]

2014 TFWP - Report on Approvals at Minimum Wage_2014May26

AFL reveals hundreds of unlawful TFW permits issued by Minister Kenney

 EDMONTON – Problems with the Temporary Foreign Worker program are not limited to the food service industry.

An Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) audit of Temporary Foreign Worker permits (Labour Market Opinions (LMOs) uncovered hundreds of instances where the Harper government broke its own rules and allowed TFWs to be paid less than Albertans. This undermines all Canadian workers.

“Minister Kenney has now banned the use of TFWs in food services. But while the food service industry may be the worst offender, it is by no means the only industry that has been using the TFW program to displace Canadians and drive down wages. So targeting food services is not enough,” Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said. “The government needs to immediately scrap all low-wage streams of the TFW program and put a moratorium on medium and high-skilled streams pending an open and transparent investigation.”

Piecing together hundreds of pages of records obtained through Access to Information, the AFL investigation found hundreds of cases where the Minister for Employment and Social Development, Jason Kenney, issued permits to employers that allowed those employers to pay TFWs less than Albertans.

“There is a clear pattern to this government’s handling of the Temporary Foreign Worker program,” McGowan said. “They’re bending, breaking, circumventing and ignoring the rules they set up to prevent abuse. And because of that, employers in all kinds of sectors are using the program to drive down wages across the country and throughout the economy.”

An employer must – according to Ministry guidelines, pay the prevailing wage rate for the region and the occupation. The permits issued are therefore unlawful. The documents show a pattern of abuse of the program far beyond fast food outlets.

“The abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker program has only gotten worse since Jason Kenney took over Employment and Social Development Canada,” McGowan said. “Ultimately, he’s the one responsible for these permits. If ministerial responsibility means anything, Jason Kenney has to resign.”

In 2012-13, unlawful permits were found for hotels, gas stations, truck stops, casinos, ski lift operations, convenience stores, greenhouses, industrial farming operations, feedlots, nurseries, and various occupations in restaurants.

The AFL is writing to the federal Auditor General to conduct a full investigation. Given the seriousness of the allegations and the pattern of abuse of the program within Jason Kenney’s ministry, the AFL is examining other avenues for investigation, such as the federal Ethics and Accountability Commissioner.

Notes on the Data

The AFL obtained the prevailing wage rates used to issue Labour Market Opinions to employers who wish to hire a Temporary Foreign Worker. This data is broken down by occupational classification and by region of the province.

We also obtained a list of LMOs given to employers for $0.50 above Alberta’s minimum wage.  Several Temporary Foreign Workers may be admitted under one LMO.

Under the regulations, employers may not pay TFWs less than the prevailing wage rate for a specific occupation in a specific region.

For most of the lower-skilled occupations where we find thousands of Temporary Foreign Workers, the prevailing wage rate paid to Albertans is more than $0.50 above minimum wage. In many cases, such as farm workers, the prevailing wage rate paid to Albertans is up to 50 per cent higher than the minimum wage. And yet, employers were given permits to hire TFWs for far less than what they have to pay Alberta workers.

The fact that this is not confined to a few isolated incidents in one industry sector points to a pattern of using TFWs to drive down Canadian wages and an intensification of the pattern since Jason Kenney took over responsibility for the permits.

To date, Canadians have never seen so much evidence of the program being used across the economy to undercut Canadian wages. All previous evidence that this was the case was presented as one bad employer or anecdotal. The AFL’s investigation – by examining thousands of TFW permit records and matching them to prevailing wage rates at the regional level – shows that the Harper government has been complicit in the undermining of Canadian wages.

AFL Backgrounder: Alberta Employers with LMOs allowing them to pay less than “prevailing market wage”

MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell)
or via e-mail [email protected]

Backgrounder_Alberta Employers with LMOs allowing them to pay less than “prevailing market wage”_2014Apr25