Federal inspectors last year fined employers a record $1.54 million for violating migrant labour regulations, according to the Department of Employment.
“Last fiscal year, over 2,100 inspections were completed,” the department said in a Sept. 27 statement, which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Of the employers inspected, 94 percent were ultimately found compliant and 6 percent were found non-compliant.”
There were 116 non-compliant employers in total, of which 94 companies received $1.54 million in fines.
“In addition, 23 employers were issued a warning and seven are now banned from using the program, some for up to five years,” the statement said.
Fines for minor violations of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, such as poor bookkeeping, often averaged under $10,000, according to Blacklock’s. Other penalties for making false statements or disregarding an inspector’s instructions reached a maximum of $258,000.
According to the department, it received 5,465 tips last year alleging employer malfeasance. The number of temporary workers in the country was 204,700.
“The government takes its responsibilities to protect temporary foreign workers very seriously and continues to take steps to improve employer compliance,” it said.
As recently as 2017, the government didn’t conduct any spot inspections under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. A significant audit that year was followed by broad enforcement of the regulations.
The auditor general’s report on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program said that the majority of activities involved document reviews based on employers’ submissions by mail, with no on-site inspections or interviews conducted with temporary foreign workers.
Out of 173 onsite inspections conducted only 13 were completed, auditors said, and inspectors did not conduct any interviews with migrant workers. Fines for non-compliance were sanctioned in 2014, however, no employer has faced financial penalties.
“We also found the department’s approach to on-site inspections was flawed because the department always told employers about them well in advance,” wrote auditors, adding that they believed onsite inspections were important.
