Labour federations call for freeze on temporary foreign workers program
The B.C. Federation of Labour has joined its counterpart in Alberta in a call for an immediate freeze on the country's accelerated process for temporary foreign workers applications.
"The fast track program should stop immediately," said Jim Sinclair, president of the BCFL. "The whole program should have a moratorium placed on it and there should be a real public review."
Sinclair was reacting to the publication of a list of more than 4,000 employers for which the federal government approved applications to bring temporary workers into Canada via an accelerated process. The document was obtained by the Alberta Federation of Labour through an Access to Information request.
According to a Service Canada website, the program, called "Accelerated Labour Market Opinion," is a means for employers to hire "temporary foreign workers for high skilled occupations."
The list obtained by the AFL covers the initial eight months following the program's launch (April 25 to December 18, 2012). It includes hundreds of companies that are believed to have used the accelerated process to hire low-skilled labour. For example, convenience stores, gas stations, and a host of restaurants such as Tim Hortons, Taco Time, Subway, and A & W.
Sinclair argued that while the temporary foreign workers program was intended to only be used as a last resort, it's become the first choice for thousands of companies across the country.
"It is all about cheap labour and depressing the wages of Canadians," he said. "Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have little-to-no respect for people who work hard for a living."
Sinclair called attention to an April 2012 rules change by Canada's human resources minister, Diane Finley, which permits employers to pay temporary foreign workers 15 percent less than average wages.
"It's all about a government that sees its job as to make the rich richer and to make the middle class disappear," he added.
Sinclair stressed that the BCFL is not against immigration. "If it's necessary to bring people to Canada, they should come here as immigrants, with the same rights as everybody else," he said.
A representative for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada could not be reached by deadline. Kelly Leitch, parliamentary secretary for the minister of human resources, told CBC News that the government was looking into the matter. "We have some significant concerns about what's going on in the temporary foreign workers program," she said.
The 2013 federal budget states that the government is "taking action to reform Canada's temporary foreign workers program." The government plans to "Work with employers to ensure that temporary foreign workers are relied upon only when Canadians genuinely cannot fill those jobs," it reads.
It's estimated that there are 70,000 temporary foreign workers in British Columbia and over 300,000 across the country. Nationally, that's up from 101,000 in 2002.
Straight.com, Wednesday, Apr 10, 2013
Byline: Travis Lupick
RBC iGate scandal: Ottawa urged to publicize Canadian employers using foreign temps
The RBC scandal is the “tip of the iceberg,” a unionist says; taxpayers have a right to know who’s benefiting and where the real labour shortages are.
The RBC scandal is the "tip of the iceberg," a unionist says; taxpayers have a right to know who's benefiting and where the real labour shortages are.
Ottawa must make Canada's temporary foreign workers program more transparent and accountable by publicizing the names of employers who bring in migrant workers and the jobs they fill, critics say.
Canadian taxpayers have a right to know which employers are benefiting from the $35.5 million a year taxpayers pay to process their applications for a "labour market opinion," say major labour groups. Potential employers aren't charged a fee for this service, which is required to justify their claim that they need to bring in foreign workers to fill a need.
"Transparency is incredibly desirable for Canadians. This can act as a check against disingenuous Canadian employers," said Karl Flecker of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).
"If the labour shortage is genuine, why would employers not want the data made public, so the government can take on job training strategies? By keeping it quiet, they are not helping our work force development."
The call came amid an ongoing investigation by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) into the use of foreign workers by oursourcing company iGate to replace 45 Canadian employees in information technology at the Royal Bank of Canada.
Flecker said the CLC has been trying in vain to obtain information from the government about participating employers since 2006. That was the year the temporary foreign worker program began to explode as it was opened up to "every legally recognized occupation" by the Conservative government.
"It's important that we know who is applying so we can identify if there is a genunine shortage," Flecker explained. "Both the federal government and the provinces are understaffed with their labour inspectors. (The unions) have the ability to assist them to meet with migrant workers about their health and safety and community integration."
Employers may argue their hiring practices are private commercial information. But University of Toronto law professor Audrey Macklin points out that government is accountable to the taxpayers who fund the program.
"All Canadians have an interest in this," Macklin said. "The real story here is not whether employers are behaving badly. They are basically responding, in a predictable way, to the incentive deliberately created by a government policy.
"When you make it easier and faster to bring in migrant workers and allow employers to pay them 5 to 15 per cent less, that's a predictable outcome."
Naveen Mehta, general counsel for United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, said his union has also been denied access to the employer information.
"We've been frustrated along the way (trying) to access the information. This will absolutely be a beneficial piece of a larger, transparent regime," said Mehta, whose group has been lobbying to get a migrant worker commission established to adjudicate on the employment of foreign temp workers.
Mehta said some Canadian employers set unattainable qualification requirements in their recruitment to justify turning to migrant workers. He gave as an example Vancouver-based HC Mining, which demanded Mandarin-speaking miners and got approval to bring in 201 workers from China.
Through an access to information request, the Alberta Federation of Labour recently obtained a long list of employers whose application for temporary foreign workers was fast-tracked and approved by the federal government under the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process.
The list, which does not include regular LMOs, includes 900 Ontario-based employers ranging from restaurants to retailers, universities, charitable groups, IT companies such as CGI Information Systems & Management Consultants, accounting firms such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers, financial institutions like the Bank of Canada and even tae kwan do academies.
AFL president Gil McGowan said many of these LMO applications have been "rubber-stamped."
He believes the scandals at RBC and HC Mining are just the tip of the iceberg.
"This isn't being used as a stop-gap, and it isn't a last resort for remployers," said McGowan, who is calling for an inquiry into the migrant worker program.
Both HRSDC and Citizenship and Immigration Canada did not respond to the Star's inquiry about employers who received favourable LMOs.
Related: The $1-billion-a-year company at the heart of the RBC temporary foreign worker controversyThe $1-billion-a-year company at the heart of the RBC temporary foreign worker controversy.
TheStar, Wednesday, Apr 10 2013
Byline: Nicholas Keung, Immigration reporter
Rise in foreign temp workers questioned by labour groups
The Alberta Federation of Labour called for an inquiry Tuesday after it obtained a government list of more than 4,000 companies given approval to hire temporary foreign workers last year, many in the service industry.
"You look down this list and what you see is McDonald's, Tim Hortons, and Subway. This list goes on. It stretches the bounds of credibility that all of these employers have been using temporary foreign workers to hire skilled workers," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, on CBC News Network's Power & Politics.
McGowan's comments come after a CBC story this week of one man's experience training foreign workers to take his job drew a fire storm of controversy and a hard look at Canada's temporary foreign workers program.
David Moreau told the CBC he and 42 other IT workers at RBC are being replaced by a foreign workforce.
"The new people are in our offices and we are training them to do our jobs," he said. "That adds insult to injury."
The head of RBC denied the bank is replacing Canadian workers with temporary foreign workers. Foreign workers were hired by iGate, an outsourcing firm, which has a contract with the bank to provide IT services.
Kelly Leitch, parliamentary secretary for the minister of human resources and skills development, said the government is looking into it.
"We have some significant concerns about what's going on in the temporary foreign workers program and that's why in (the budget) we've committed to fix the challenges that exist so Canadians can be better connected to jobs."
Labour economist Erin Weir says that kind of review is essential: "This should lead to a broader debate about the temporary foreign worker program. Is it really addressing labour shortages? Or is it undermining job opportunities and wages in Canada?"
The program began in 1973 to fill a gap in the labour market for jobs Canadians could not or would not fill — domestic workers and agricultural workers as well as highly skilled jobs, such as specialist physicians and professors.
"The idea of having a temporary foreign worker program is legitimate," according to Prof. Ian Lee at Carleton University's Sport School of Business. "The Germans, other European countries and the U.S. all have this kind of program. The issue is to have the right checks and balances to ensure it isn't abused."
But critics suggest those checks and balances have been undermined by recent changes to the program. The high-skill segment made up more than 50 per cent of temporary foreign workers, but all that changed in 2002. That's when the federal government under the Liberals began a pilot project adding a new category of "low skilled workers."
According to a recent report by the faculty of business at Athabasca University in Edmonton, the "low skilled category now dominates the temporary foreign workforce, with the top categories now including food counter attendants, kitchen helpers, cooks; construction trades, helpers and labourers, light-duty cleaners and administration workers including information technology."
In 2006, the new Conservative government expanded the pilot project, and added "fast-tracking" for some jobs in Alberta and British Columbia. The new list of jobs called "regional occupations under pressure," reduced the obligation by employers to seek out Canadian workers first.
While most think the program is meant to fill jobs in remote parts of resource-rich Western Canada, some of the largest increase in temporary foreign workers have been in cities.
Since 2008, permits for temporary foreign workers in Toronto increased by 60 per cent, in Montreal by 87 per cent and the Atlantic Provinces saw an 80 per cent increase, according to data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
The total number of temporary foreign workers has doubled in the last decade, to 338,189 workers.
"We now have about as many temporary workers in Canada as the entire workforce of New Brunswick," said Weir, an economist with the United Steel Workers Union.
"I think part of the problem is that a lot of companies are going through the motions of pretending to hire Canadians, in order to gain those Labour Market Opinions that they need to get temporary foreign workers."
Weir suggests the foreign worker program often allows employers to fill vacancies without providing training opportunities or raising wages to attract workers.
He points to recent studies showing Canadian companies underperform compared to businesses in other OECD countries, including the U.S., when it comes to training and development of its own workforce.
All Canadians could pay for the expansion of this category of worker, according to Weir: "Expanding labour supply, without an offsetting expansion of demand, increases unemployment and decreases wages."
Another change to the program last year allows employers to pay workers 15 per cent less than Canadian workers. Carleton's Ian Lee says allowing lower wages could undermine Canadians' support for the program.
"The problem is it creates the perception that it's being used to undermine organized labour or undermine the market wage rate in that job classification. It's going to discourage public support when Canadians realize an employer can do that."
"Canadian workers are being displaced, training is being ignored and the TFW program is becoming the first choice rather than a tool of last resort," said the Alberta Federation of Labour's McGowan.
Kelly Leitch defends the program.
"When we don't have a Canadian available because there actually isn't anyone available, it's important that we have access to a good program, a sound temporary foreign worker program; that skilled labour can be brought into the country to make sure that firms can thrive."
She said the government is committed to reviewing the program, but had no details on when that review would be complete.
Perhaps the courts will get there first.
On Tuesday, HD Mining International was in a Vancouver courtroom, defending its decision to hire 201 workers from China for its coal mine in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
Two B.C. unions launched the case against the company.
Brian Cochrane, of the International Union of Operating Engineers, hopes the case will result in changes.
"I think that this case is going to give us a chance to look under the hood of the whole temporary foreign worker program."
CBC News, Wednesday, Apr 10 2013
Tories looking at review of foreign worker program
OTTAWA—The federal government is investigating the possible abuse of the temporary foreign workers hiring program by Canadian companies and is expected to overhaul it to put greater onus on businesses to seek out local employees before bringing in foreign workers.
Businesses that are turning to foreign workers to fill employee shortages are also expected to be required in future to do more to train Canadians for the skilled job vacancies now going to people from overseas, a senior government official said.
The review of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program has taken on new urgency as Prime Minister Stephen Harpers' government faces a firestorm of complaints that its policies are encouraging firms in Canada to replace Canadians with foreign workers and drive down wages.
"The Conservatives are enabling companies to exploit the program and avoid hiring Canadian workers," NDP deputy immigration critic Sadia Groguhé said Wednesday. "The point of the program is to complement Canadian workers, not substitute them."
Outrage over the government's foreign hiring plan blew up after it emerged that the Royal Bank of Canada was planning to shift the information technology work done by 45 Canadian employees to foreigners contracted by iGate, a U.S.-based outsourcing firm.
But the issue has been gathering steam since last year, when HD Mining International Ltd., a Chinese-backed coal mining operation in British Columbia, brought in 201 miners from China under the temporary workers program.
The federal government is investigating the applications leading up to the staffing changes at RBC and is also conducting a wider look at the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which has doubled in the last decade to 338,000 workers.
In the March 21 federal budget, the government said it planned to reform the program to ensure foreign workers are brought in only when Canadians are "genuinely" not available. The new rules will require employers to make more extensive efforts — including more advertising — to hire Canadians before becoming eligible to bring in foreign workers.
The government also wants to work with employers who "legitimately" rely on foreign workers to ensure the companies have a plan to move to a Canadian workforce, the budget said.
As well, the reforms would require companies to pay user fees to apply for permission to bring in foreign workers. But officials haven't said when the new rules will be put in place.
The government is also concerned about another recent measure for bringing in foreign workers quickly. The Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) is a way to fast-track applications for skilled workers needed on a temporary basis by Canadian companies.
The Alberta Federation of Labour focused attention on this aspect of Canada's temporary worker arrangements after it obtained a list of 4,800 companies — many in the services industry — that were approved to bring in temporary help under ALMO last year.
"You look down this list and it's McDonalds, Tim Hortons, A&W, Subway Sandwiches," said Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan. "Are we supposed to believe that these are 'high-skill' employment opportunities?"
The government is looking at how "skilled workers" are defined under this program, a senior official said. Currently, a manager or supervisor in a service business can qualify as a skilled worker under the program, the official noted.
The government is "committed to fixing the (temporary worker) program to ensure that Canadians have first crack at jobs in Canada," a spokesperson for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said. "The program exists to address real and acute labour shortages in certain sectors and regions across the country on a temporary basis. It was never meant to replace Canadians with foreign workers."
The Harper government is also concerned about another federal program called an intra-company transfer, which allows multinational companies to temporarily shift employees to Canada without the need to convince Ottawa that no Canadian can do the job. This measure is also being examined to see if it is being abused by companies wanting to avoid the usual procedures for bringing in foreign employees, the official said.
Ottawa Star, Wednesday Apr 10 2013
Byline: Les Whittington
Will work for less: a primer on temporary foreign workers
Earlier this week, news broke that RBC plans to hire 45 temporary foreign workers through iGate, an IT contractor, to fill positions of employees who say that, in fact, they're training their own replacements.
RBC denies this, saying that no one will lose their jobs and that the Canadian employees will be moved to other departments.
In Alberta alone, 4,000 companies have been given approval to hire temporary foreign workers. Canada-wide, there are 338,000 temporary foreign workers.
Postmedia News walks you through the controversy:
WHAT IS A TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKER?
Immigration Canada defines a temporary foreign worker as "workers (who) enter Canada to work temporarily in jobs that help Canadian employers address skill shortages."
Temporary foreign workers would, in principle, fill jobs such as carpenters, fruit pickers or managers in communication. These are areas that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) says are suffering skills shortages.
WHAT DID RBC DO THAT CAUSED CONTROVERSY?
The reason for the temporary foreign worker program is so that companies can go outside of Canada when there is a clear absence of Canadians to fill the positions.
In this case, critics say they were being brought in to replace positions that were already filled. The fact that several jobs will themselves eventually move offshore – outsourcing – further clouds the issue.
It is unclear whether or not any rules were broken. HRSDC has launched an official probe into the hiring.
WHY WOULD A COMPANY PREFER FOREIGN WORKERS?
Briefly, it's about wages. "You can actually pay these temporary foreign workers 15-per-cent less, you don't have to pay for a lot of the other benefits, and the employer has a power balance that gets even more skewed because the workers are so much more vulnerable than residents," argues Jinny Sims, the federal NDP's immigration critic.
WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS FOR HAVING TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS?
Under the true guidelines of the program, temporary foreign workers are seen as an aid to the economy.
"If, for instance, you run a cherry orchard, apparently it's very difficult to get Canadians to come and pick the cherries in the orchard," said Michael Hart, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. "You can hire temporary workers from Mexico to do that."
"The biggest reason to support it is if there are particular shortages, this is a quick and dirty way to address those needs," added Sharry Aiken, law professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. "When there are very clear needs for the workers, there can be quite dramatic consequences if those jobs aren't filled."
William Watson, economics professor at McGill University in Montreal, said that "it's fair game for Canadian firms to play by the rules if that can cut their costs."
WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST USING TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS?
Some wonder if these workers are really necessary. Aren't they taking up jobs that Canadians can do?
"You can argue, if you are, say, a member of a labour union, that the guy who needs cherry-pickers from Mexico, if he paid a higher wage then Canadians would be willing to pick cherries," said Hart.
"Necessity is an interesting moral question. Economically, at the price that you have to pay in order to sell your cherries, you can't afford to pay $20 an hour."
"Particularly in cases where these are not temporary labour shortages – these are permanent labour shortages – why are we using a temporary foreign worker program to address what is in fact a permanent or chronic labour shortage?" said Aiken.
"It's more equitable if the workers are brought in with the view of becoming permanent residents."
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
The Alberta Federation of Labour is starting an inquiry into how 4,000 companies in that province received permission to hire temporary foreign workers. That's in addition to the HRSDC probe.
Changes will probably come to the temporary foreign workers program, but it won't go away.
The Vancouver Sun,Wednesday, Apr 10 2013
Byline: Karl Kofmel
Will work for less: a primer on temporary foreign workers
Earlier this week, news broke that RBC plans to hire 45 temporary foreign workers through iGate, an IT contractor, to fill positions of employees who say that, in fact, they're training their own replacements.
RBC denies this, saying that no one will lose their jobs and that the Canadian employees will be moved to other departments.
In Alberta alone, 4,000 companies have been given approval to hire temporary foreign workers. Canada-wide, there are 338,000 temporary foreign workers.
Postmedia News walks you through the controversy:
WHAT IS A TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKER?
Immigration Canada defines a temporary foreign worker as "workers (who) enter Canada to work temporarily in jobs that help Canadian employers address skill shortages."
Temporary foreign workers would, in principle, fill jobs such as carpenters, fruit pickers or managers in communication. These are areas that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) says are suffering skills shortages.
WHAT DID RBC DO THAT CAUSED CONTROVERSY?
The reason for the temporary foreign worker program is so that companies can go outside of Canada when there is a clear absence of Canadians to fill the positions.
In this case, critics say they were being brought in to replace positions that were already filled. The fact that several jobs will themselves eventually move offshore – outsourcing – further clouds the issue.
It is unclear whether or not any rules were broken. HRSDC has launched an official probe into the hiring.
WHY WOULD A COMPANY PREFER FOREIGN WORKERS?
Briefly, it's about wages. "You can actually pay these temporary foreign workers 15-per-cent less, you don't have to pay for a lot of the other benefits, and the employer has a power balance that gets even more skewed because the workers are so much more vulnerable than residents," argues Jinny Sims, the federal NDP's immigration critic.
WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS FOR HAVING TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS?
Under the true guidelines of the program, temporary foreign workers are seen as an aid to the economy.
"If, for instance, you run a cherry orchard, apparently it's very difficult to get Canadians to come and pick the cherries in the orchard," said Michael Hart, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. "You can hire temporary workers from Mexico to do that."
"The biggest reason to support it is if there are particular shortages, this is a quick and dirty way to address those needs," added Sharry Aiken, law professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. "When there are very clear needs for the workers, there can be quite dramatic consequences if those jobs aren't filled."
William Watson, economics professor at McGill University in Montreal, said that "it's fair game for Canadian firms to play by the rules if that can cut their costs."
WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST USING TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS?
Some wonder if these workers are really necessary. Aren't they taking up jobs that Canadians can do?
"You can argue, if you are, say, a member of a labour union, that the guy who needs cherry-pickers from Mexico, if he paid a higher wage then Canadians would be willing to pick cherries," said Hart.
"Necessity is an interesting moral question. Economically, at the price that you have to pay in order to sell your cherries, you can't afford to pay $20 an hour."
"Particularly in cases where these are not temporary labour shortages – these are permanent labour shortages – why are we using a temporary foreign worker program to address what is in fact a permanent or chronic labour shortage?" said Aiken.
"It's more equitable if the workers are brought in with the view of becoming permanent residents."
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
The Alberta Federation of Labour is starting an inquiry into how 4,000 companies in that province received permission to hire temporary foreign workers. That's in addition to the HRSDC probe.
Changes will probably come to the temporary foreign workers program, but it won't go away.
Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, Apr 10 2013
Byline: Karl Kofmel, Postmedia News
Foreign worker program wrongly fills low-skill jobs, labour group says
EDMONTON -- A labour group is calling for a review of a federal program designed to help employers quickly hire temporary foreign workers for high-skill jobs.
The Alberta Federation of Labour says since the program was announced last April, more than 2,400 permits have been approved to hire foreign workers for low-skill service industry positions.
Federation president Gil McGowan says access to information documents show the employers include fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations.
"You look down this list, and it's McDonald's, Tim Hortons, A&W, Subway," McGowan said Tuesday.
"Are we supposed to believe that these are 'high-skill' employment opportunities?"
Some of the other businesses listed in the documents include The Big Moo Ice Cream Parlour in Alberta, Burger King in British Columbia and Pizza Express in Ontario.
McGowan said the permits are being used to replace Canadian workers and drive down wages.
He has sent a letter, along with the documents, to federal auditor general Michael Ferguson. It asks for an audit of the government's approval process.
Alyson Queen, director of communications for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, said in an email that the department is "very concerned."
"Officials are investigating and will look into any evidence that the program is being misused," she said.
"The program exists to address real and acute labour shortages in certain sectors and regions across the country on a temporary basis. It was never meant to replace Canadians with foreign workers."
Under the federal Accelerated-Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) program, employers can pay foreign workers up to 15 per cent less than Canadian workers. The program is designed to process permits to hire temporary foreign workers for high-skill jobs, including the skilled trades, within 10 business days.
"The percentage of ALMO approvals for businesses that largely employ low-skilled workers appears to be in direct contradiction to the stated parameters of the program," McGowan writes in the letter.
McGowan said just over half of the approvals by the department are for businesses in Alberta, including 33 A&W restaurants.
Information posted on the department's website says permits under ALMO have been approved for every jurisdiction in the country except for Prince Edward Island, the Yukon and Nunavut.
Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said many small- and medium-size employers need temporary foreign workers to fill jobs. The need is most pressing in Western Canada and in rural communities right across the country, he said.
"I take it as a positive that businesses of all skill levels are able to access this expedited process. Our members really need those expedited processes," Kelly said from Toronto.
"We are moving into large pockets of the country where it has gone beyond a skills shortage and has moved into a general labour shortage where there is no one available to take the jobs that are on offer by Canadian employers."
The CFIB says it represents more than 109,000 businesses across the country.
McGowan said if employers are having a tough time finding workers, they should pay higher wages or the federal government could increase immigration.
He suggested initiatives such as ALMO and the Temporary Foreign Worker program are not the answer.
"Workers who want to come to Canada should enjoy the same rights and privileges as other Canadian residents," he said.
"We shouldn't be paying them 15 per cent less than Canadians, and government shouldn't be whisking them in through an accelerated and duplicitous process."
CTV News, Tuesday, Apr. 09, 2013
John Cotter, The Canadian Press
FOIP A-2012-00448 SS_ALMOs under the TFW program_2013Feb04
This document, FOIP A-2012-00448 SS_ALMOs under the TFW program_2013Feb04, obtained by the Alberta Federation of Labour through an Access to Information request, lists all approved TFW applications in the first eight months of the new Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) process.
Fast food chains using loophole to hire foreigners, says labour group
Fast-food chains and convenience stores are using a loophole in Canada's temporary foreign worker program to keep labour costs down, says an Alberta labour group.
Labour spokesperson Gil McGowan says fast food chains are hiring unskilled foreign workers using loopholes in a process set up to fast-track highly-skilled workers.Labour spokesperson Gil McGowan says fast food chains are hiring unskilled foreign workers using loopholes in a process set up to fast-track highly-skilled workers. (CBC)
Documents reveal that more than half of the temporary foreign workers hired through a new fast-track process to bring in highly-skilled workers ended up working at fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, said Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan.
"It stretches the bounds of crediblity that companies like A&W, McDonalds would be hiring high-skilled workers," McGowan said.
The document obtained through an access-to-information request shows restaurants, stores and gas stations across the country were granted more than 2,400 guest worker permits under the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process between April 25 and Dec. 18, 2012.
"These applications have been rubber stamped in as little as 10 days and the vast majority aren't subjected to any kind of review," McGowan said.
More than half of all workers, 54 per cent, who were hired under the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion during the period ended up in Alberta.
Of those, almost 60 per cent were flagged as inappropriate under the process, McGowan said.
He said it's clear to him companies are abusing the system, giving jobs to foreign workers that Canadians should have as the Harper government turns a blind eye.
"They're using the temporary foreign workers program to keep wages low," McGowan said.
The program allows employers to pay workers up to 15 per cent less than Canadians.
McGowan wants the Auditor General to open an investigation into the fast-track process.
A spokesperson told CBC News the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development is concerned with the recent issues involving the Temporary Foreign Worker program and said officials will look into any evidence that the program is being misused.
The AFL's accusations come on the heels of a CBC Investigation revealing the Royal Bank of Canada is hiring foreign workers while laying off dozens of its Canadian employees.
CBC News Edmonton, Tuesday, Apr. 09, 2013
With files from CBC's James Hees