Federal inspectors have stepped up fines against employers accused of breaching migrant labour regulations, records show.
According to the government’s official website, employers who hire temporary workers may be inspected to ensure they meet their obligations as an employer under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or International Mobility Program.
Failure to comply with the programs’ rules will result in either receiving a fine or a temporary ban from hiring those workers.
There have been 131 employers fined so far this year, according to records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Most penalties in the federal records were under $10,000. However, several businesses were fined more than $100,000, the outlet reported. Trucking company Trans Empire Logistics of Delta, B.C., was penalized $135,000 for allegedly withholding documents from federal inspectors and assigning migrant labourers to jobs that were not posted.
A Sherwood Park, Alta., contractor, Luigi’s Concrete Ltd., was fined $153,000 and landed a five-year ban for allegedly paying a lesser salary or having working conditions that didn’t match the job offer description.
On-Site Inspections
The enforcement of migrant labour rules followed a 2017 audit that faulted the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for cursory checks.“Most activities consisted of reviewing documents that employers were asked to provide to investigators by mail and did not include on-site inspections or interviews with temporary foreign workers,” said the Auditor General’s “Report 5—Temporary Foreign Worker Program—Employment and Social Development Canada.”
“Recognizing the important role that unannounced on-site visits could play in protecting foreign workers, we have accelerated our efforts and expect to complete work on this in the fall,” Ms. Levonian said at the time.
In a 2020 follow-up, auditors found almost half of the inspected employers failed spot inspections.
On Aug. 8, the federal government introduced the “recognized employer pilot” program to incentivize employers to follow worker-protection rules.