Employers worry as Ottawa plans to overhaul temporary foreign workers program

A majority of employers in the agriculture sector are opposed to a federal plan that would allow foreign workers to change employers within the same industry because they fear this would encourage “employee poaching,” says a new study.

 

As Ottawa is looking to overhaul its temporary foreign worker program, 59 per cent of the agri-businesses owners said they would prefer a multi-employer work permit that would let farm owners share a foreign worker, according to the report released Wednesday by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

 

The same proportion of operators said they don’t support the federal government’s move to issue so-called sectoral or regional work permits to migrant workers, which are meant to afford them the mobility to leave a potentially exploitative workplace and work for someone else in the sector and/or geographical area.

 

About half of the 544 respondents from across Canada also opposed the idea of having a third party recruit and dispatch a pool of foreign workers to employers.

“With sectoral and regional open work permits, employers are at greater risk of losing foreign workers in whose recruitment and training they have invested a lot of money,” warned the report, titled “Harvesting a solution: Temporary Foreign Workers key to mitigating agricultural labour shortages.”

 

“This could create a chilling effect if an increasing number of employers wait for others to recruit foreign workers only to poach them without expending as much effort or cost increases.”

 

While having a third party to recruit and retain a pool of foreign workers and dispatch workers where and when they’re needed — on a fee-recovery basis — could help mitigate some risks and costs, the study said this could add red tape for business owners and complicate communication.

 

As first reported by the Star, the federal government is looking to roll out new temporary foreign worker rules starting next year that would add protections for workers and simplify the current program.

 

Under the proposal, the four existing worker streams would be reduced to two — for workers covered under bilateral agreements with their home countries, and an “open-source” category for those from other places where there are no such government deals with Canada.

 

The plan was part of the 2022 federal budget, which committed $51.1 million over three years to implement a new foreign labour program for agriculture and fish processing, meant to “increase protections for workers and to reduce administrative burdens for trusted repeat employers.”

 

Canadian farm owners, fisheries and food processing companies have faced chronic labour shortages and must rely on bringing in foreign workers to fill jobs that tend to be physically demanding, sometimes seasonal in nature, and located in rural and remote areas.

 

The proposed changes are a partial response to incidents of abuse and exploitation of workers who are restricted to working for their sponsored employers, a practice that a UN human rights expert called ”a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” after a two-week visit in Canada last year.

 

The business federation’s report found that three in 10 agri-businesses hired foreign workers last year, and the reliance on foreign workers was more pronounced in certain regions, such as Quebec, where 51 per cent of operators do so. The use of the program was even higher in labour-intensive subsectors, such as in fruit, vegetable and horticultural production, reaching 64 per cent.

Contrary to common misconceptions, the study pointed out that 85 per cent of temporary foreign workers are paid the same wage as Canadians. It said the federal government conducts regular inspections to ensure health and safety of foreign workers, and 94 per cent of employers are compliant .

 

“While there may be isolated bad actors that should not be tolerated, agri-businesses highly value foreign workers, and they take time and effort to bring TFWs to Canada,” said Francesca Basta, a research analyst for the business federation, in a press release. “They cover costs that go beyond wages like housing, transport and health care.”

The report recommends:

•Reducing red tape with hiring TFWs;

•Allowing for the sharing or transferring foreign workers;

•Introducing a mechanism to compensate for initial costs covered by the employer whose employee has been poached.

 

Ottawa says details of the new temporary foreign worker program and transitional plans will be available this fall or early next year.

 

 

 

This article was first reported by Star