Another employer faces 10-year ban, $100,000 fine
The federal government has permanently banned a B.C. employer from hiring temporary workers, while imposing a 10-year prohibition for the same practice on another employer.
Toor Vineyards was banned because the pay or working conditions didn't match, or were not better than, what was listed on the offer of employment, or the job was not the same as what was listed on the offer of employment, according to the government.
Also, the employer didn't put in enough effort to make sure the workplace was free of any of the following:
The employer also didn’t provide the inspector the documents they requested.
Ottawa has introduced significant changes to its Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, aimed at safeguarding Canadian workers while continuing to protect workers from potential fraud and exploitation.
Raul Gatica, the founder of Dignidad Migrante Society, said a “minimum of five, six” workers at the winery had reached out to his organization for help in recent years, with at least one of them seeking advice after suffering sexual abuse, The Canadian Press reported.
“We say, ‘You know that is a crime thing, so you have to go to the police,'” said Gatica, who added that police were told of the allegations, in the CP report posted in City News.
The TFW program opens workers to risks of various forms of slavery, according to a previous report from the United Nations (UN).
"This is quite a rare situation that they get a ban," said Navid Bayat, staff lawyer at the Migrant Workers Centre, in a CBC report.
Toor Vineyards is the only employer that has been permanently banned from the TFW Program out of the 957 that have been penalized for different violations, according to the federal government’s list.
"To me, it reads that they are coming out hard on a likely pattern of systemic violations of the temporary foreign worker program and of the rights of migrant workers who have come here under the pretence of being promised a job in Canada," said Bayat.
Toor Vineyards was also fined $118,000, an amount that Bayat said is “significant”. He hopes the penalty on the employer would send a message to other employers.
Meanwhile, Samhil Logistics is facing a 10-year ban from the program, plus a fine of $100,000.
The employer faces the penalties because it didn't show up for an inspection, and didn't help or give information to the inspector when asked to. Also, the employer was not actively engaged in the business that the foreign national was hired to work for (aside from live-in caregivers).
Samhil Logistics also didn't give the inspector the documents they asked for.
From April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) completed 2,122 inspections under the TFW program, and issued $2.1 million in Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMP) to non-compliant employers.
