Groups calls for change in 'system of punishment' which 'doesn't help workers'
New Brunswick employer LeBreton Fisheries has been fined more than $365,000 and has been banned from hiring temporary foreign workers for two years for failing to provide a work environment free of harassment and reprisal, according to a report.
Immigration Canada found that pay or working conditions at the lobster processing plant in Grand-Anse – on the Acadian Peninsula – did not match the workers' contracts, according to CBC.
The employer also broke federal or provincial hiring and recruiting laws, didn't make information about workers' rights available in both official languages, and did not keep documents for the required amount of time.
The fine is the highest one levied against a New Brunswick employer of temporary foreign workers, CBC reported, citing data from the federal non-compliance database.
Kevin LeBreton, one of the owners of the company, said that the sanctions are not appropriate and that they are exploring their legal options, according to the report.
LeBreton Fisheries was also previously fined $30,000 for failing to provide a work environment free of harassment and reprisal. That is the second highest fine on record, according to the report.
Previously, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) said that the Recognized Employer Pilot (REP) under Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is being exploited by low-wage employers.
‘System of punishment’ that ‘doesn’t help workers’
Last summer, LeBreton Fisheries sent home 80 workers from Mexico and the Philippines two months before their contract was to end. The company said a slow season was to blame.
At that time, a worker spoke publicly about the working conditions and reprisal he said he faced at the fish plant, noted CBC.
However, three LeBreton workers have stayed in Canada after receiving an open work permit for vulnerable employees, said Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
The work permits are available only to temporary foreign workers who are "being abused or at risk of being abused" in relation to their job in Canada, CBC reported, citing Immigration Canada's website.
However, with the way the system is set up, it’s impossible to know for sure whether the fine on LeBreton Fisheries was a result of the three employees' complaints, said Hussan in the report.
"There needs to be a process for workers to get justice, and the federal complaints and enforcement system is simply not able to do so because there's no standing for the migrant workers themselves," he said.
"These complaints, evaluations – these bans and these fines – basically function separately from workers' well-being,” Hussan said, calling them a "fundamental flaw."
"This is not a system of justice, it's a system of punishment and that doesn't help workers."
Acadie-Bathurst MP Serge Cormier previously noted that LeBreton contacted his office asking for help with the process several months ago. He said the plant has been trying to comply with the process, which he says can be complex and bureaucratic, according to the report.
However, Hussan’s group has been hearing issues about temp workers not being paid properly.
"Particularly in New Brunswick, particularly in fisheries, we're constantly seeing workers not working for large periods and their employers not paying them — despite the contract guaranteeing a minimum hours of work," Hussan said in the report.
In September 2023, Tomoya Obokata, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, said that “employer-specific work permit regimes”, including the TFW Program, make migrant workers “vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery”.
However, Stefan Larrass, senior policy advisor, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association, later told HRD that that comment was “completely inappropriate”.