TFW Program ‘breeding ground for slavery,’ claims UN expert

The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program opens workers to risks of various forms of slavery, according to a recent report from the United Nations (UN).

“The Temporary Foreign Worker Program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights,” said Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.

He noted that the number of permit holders under the program has ballooned from just over 84,000 in 2018 to more than 135,800 in 2022.

Overall, the number of positions approved to be filled by temporary foreign workers in 2023 stood at 239,646, more than double the 108,988 recorded in 2018, CBC previously reported, citing data from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

Physical, verbal, emotional abuse; sexual harassment

With the growing numbers, the UN expert has received reports of “underpayment and wage theft, physical, emotional and verbal abuse, excessive work hours, limited breaks, extracontractual work, uncompensated managerial duties, lack of personal protective equipment, including in hazardous conditions, confiscation of documents and arbitrary reductions of working hours,” he said in the report.

“Women reported sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse,” he added.

Fraud is also an issue, as some workers reported receiving “false assurances that their employers had undertaken a labour market impact assessment [LMIA] or applied for permanent residency, only to find out that they had fallen out of status,” he said.

Filing complaints is also a problem for workers as the mechanisms are difficult for workers to navigate “without external assistance”.

“For many seasonal workers, the fear of losing their jobs and being deported is compounded by debt bondage,” said Obokata.

He did, however, acknowledge that efforts by the Canadian government to increase awareness of such mechanisms had led to a 39.4 per cent increase in the number of complaints received.

‘Structural inequities’ between workers, employers

Still, all the problems plaguing the program are possible because of the “structural inequities between temporary foreign workers and employers and their insufficient access to justice and remedies,” said the UN expert.

“The government does not seem to proactively and effectively inform workers about their rights, apart from publishing information online and providing ad hoc funding to civil society organizations for migrant rights education, although it does provide outreach sessions to employers, consulates, migrant worker support organizations and authorities on workers’

rights. The Government defers a significant portion of responsibility for informing temporary foreign workers of their rights to employers, despite the obvious conflict of interest.”

Obokata had previously said that the TFW Program is a breeding ground for slavery after a 14-day visit to Canada.

Another problem is that temporary foreign workers face barriers to union membership “especially in the agricultural and care sectors, where all workers lack federal union rights,” said the UN expert.

Mathis Denis, spokesperson for the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, said the government has recently increased fines for companies that don't offer appropriate working conditions to their foreign workers, according to a CTV News report. 

Last fiscal year, Canada's 2,122 inspections resulted in fines totalling $2.1 million for non-compliant employers, up from $1.54 million the year before, he said.

UN expert recommendations on to address TFW Program problems

The Special Rapporteur recommends that the government of Canada address the situation of migrant workers by:

• Ending the use of closed work permit regimes and allowing all workers the right the choose and change their employers in any sector without restriction or discrimination;
• Ensuring that all migrant workers have a clear pathway to permanent residency from the time of their arrival in the country and are able to benefit from federally funded settlement services and other public services without discrimination;
• Regularizing workers who have lost status, in particular workers who have been victims of contemporary forms of slavery;
• Enforcing international human rights obligations, national human rights standards and provincial and territorial standards regarding labour rights, occupational health and safety, unionization, health care and housing for migrant workers, without discrimination;
• Ending interjurisdictional neglect by mandating or creating a single coordination body with full oversight of migrant workers’ rights and conditions and ensuring that all federal, provincial, territorial and municipal actors are regularly engaged and sensitized about their responsibilities;
• Providing equal access to adequate housing without discrimination, in line with the National Housing Strategy Act.

One report previously called on the Canadian government to grant permanent resident status for foreign workers upon their arrival in Canada.