Access to Justice for Migrant Workers in BC - West Coast Domestic ...

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In speaking with community organizers working with SAWP workers, some farms continue to provide substandard living accommodations to SAWP workers. On one farm, workers quietly told the organizer that there was no running water at the accommodation so the workers had to use an outdoor hose in a neighbor’s home. However, nobody at the farm was willing to make a public complaint and risk not being named the following year. Organizers also spoke about workers having to work in inhumane, unfair and unsafe conditions. In most cases, the workers are not willing to jeopardize their placement in the program by lodging a formal complaint. The Fight for Fair Wages and Paid Overtime Low salaries, unpaid wages and no overtime pay are some of the most insidious problems under the TFWP. Due to the absence of an effective enforcement mechanism and or ineffective legislative protections, workers often do not receive the pay they are owed or pay that reflect the value of their work. With respect to farm workers, legislators have not only failed to protect them through employment standards law, but have singled out their occupation as one undeserving of crucial protections, such as overtime and statutory holiday pay. At the same time as this exclusion was being implemented, the definition of farm work was broadened significantly to cover a broader range of food processing jobs that were formerly not considered farm work. 74 The net effect of this expansion meant that a large number of workers in food processing were excluded from key employment standards protections. Furthermore, wage discrepancies continue to persist between migrant farm workers working under the SAWP and those working under the Agricultural Stream of the Stream for Lower-Skilled Occupations. Whereas SAWP workers’ contracts stipulate that they are paid no less than minimum wage and most workers often are paid minimum wage, Agricultural Stream workers can be paid on a piece rate basis. These discrepancies create a two-tier payment scheme for essentially the same work. For live-in caregivers, unpaid wages and unpaid overtime continue to be persistent issues. Live-in caregivers that the research team spoke with reported that they were paid less than minimum wage, that their pay was often or always late, that they were owed wages by their employer and that they were paid in cash and did not receive pay information that showed a record of deductions or hours worked. Additionally, while a few caregivers informed the team that they sometimes received pay for hours worked overtime and their two weeks entitled vacation, what the team overwhelmingly heard was a complete disregard for overtime and vacation pay. Public reaction to the raising of the minimum wage in BC in 2011 and 2012 demonstrates how live-in caregivers are seen as less deserving of fair wages. Some 74 David Fairey and Marjorie Griffin Cohen, “Why BC’s Lower-wage Workers are Struggling,” The Tyee, April 24, 2013, http:// thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/04/24/BC-Employment-Standards/. 29
employers argued that the rise in minimum wage for caregivers meant that the cost of childcare and elderly care was becoming inaccessible. Indeed, some employers wrote to BC Premier Christy Clarke to protest the increase and demand the right to charge live-in caregivers more per month for accommodation to make up the difference. 75 Whilst access to affordable childcare that allows women and men to return to the workforce after maternity/paternity leave is important, this should not be done at the expense of abusing the rights of live-in caregivers to a decent wage and overtime pay. WCDWA’s research findings align with those of other academics and researchers. Geraldine Pratt describes how CIC’s treatment of live-in caregivers as temporary workers, rather than permanent residents, legitimizes “wage levels and working conditions unacceptable to Canadian citizens” while framing women who demand their workers’ rights as “greedy”. 76 Such was the case with one of the women the research team interviewed who, after working over a month without being paid, asked for payment. Her employer’s wife accused her of being selfish and only thinking about her salary. Eventually, she was only given $500 for the first month of work and subsequently always had to ask multiple times, often waiting weeks, to receive any payment at all. Her employer’s wife would always accompany her to the bank to deposit her cheque and had asked her on occasion, “do you really need the money” Adequate Housing The LCP and SAWP streams of the TFWP stipulate that employers provide their workers with accommodation. Under the stream for ‘lower-skilled’ occupations, employers are expected to either provide affordable housing or show proof that affordable housing is available where the worker is expected to work. While regulations and contractual obligations exist for minimum standards for housing, our research confirms that they are not being enforced and violations are common, resulting in workers being forced to live in deplorable conditions. Employers’ control of accommodation also increases worker reliance on employers, fostering vulnerability and potentially enhancing isolation. The Live-in Requirement of the LCP One core condition of the LCP is that a live-in caregiver must work for one employer only on a full time basis and must reside within that employers’ home. 77 This requirement is unique within the TFWP. Researchers and academics consistently opine that the live-in 75 Stanley Tromp, “Parents protest wage rise for BC Nannies,” Vancouver Courier, January 13, 2012, http://www.vancourier.com/ Parents+protest+wage+rise+nannies/5992706/story.html. 76 Geraldine Pratt, “Stereotypes and ambivalence: The construction of domestic workers in Vancouver, British Columbia,” Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, vol. 4(2) (1997): 167, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663699725413. 77 IRPR s.113. 30
Page 3 and 4: Access to Justice for Migrant Worke
Page 5 and 6: Contents Acknowledgements .........
Page 7 and 8: Acronyms AWA BC BCGEU BC ESA ESB CB
Page 9 and 10: Data Collection The researchers col
Page 11 and 12: PART ONE The Global Shift Toward Te
Page 13 and 14: This was the first of a series of p
Page 15 and 16: accommodation arrangements, hours o
Page 17 and 18: Other Migrant Worker Schemes In add
Page 19 and 20: which is dependent upon work locati
Page 21 and 22: PART TWO Literature Review and Anal
Page 23 and 24: In addition to decreasing standards
Page 25 and 26: temporary migrant workers are subje
Page 27 and 28: PART THREE Abuse and Denial of Righ
Page 29 and 30: Illegal Recruitment Fees and Other
Page 31: country have forced them to return
Page 35 and 36: permanent residence. One caregiver
Page 37 and 38: with their immigration status and w
Page 39 and 40: econstituted family struggles to ad
Page 41 and 42: Income assessment creates several b
Page 43 and 44: system of both employers and recrui
Page 45 and 46: employment standards. Migrant worke

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