Migrant workers are crucial to Canada’s economy. They bravely take on some of the most dangerous jobs that Canadians are unwilling to do, and yet this group is often either taken advantage of or neglected by employers, recruiters, and the government. There is a long history of egregious exploitation of migrant workers in Canada, with unsafe working conditions and abusive employer relationships being an all too frequent norm (Walia, 156). These precarious employment opportunities are not the only problem however, as even before securing a contract, migrant workers have to first face the problem of being at risk of misleading schemes run by illegitimate recruiting companies (Mojtehedzadeh). These unregistered recruiters craft ploys that swindle migrants and result in thousands of dollars lost, unstable immigration statuses, and dreams shattered (Mojtehedzadeh). However, the provincial government of Ontario has been rolling out legislations over the past few years that intend to curb these issues and improve conditions and equity for workers of all sectors. One of these newer legislations is Bill 27, dubbed the Working for Workers Act. This act became effective on December 2, 2021, with the intention of implementing policies and measures that will benefit workers and promote legitimacy among recruiting agencies (Levy). It covers a variety of topics in relation to the working class, such as changes towards work-life balance policies and prohibitions on non-compete agreements (Keung). In particular, however, Bill 27’s relevance to migrant workers is found in its section on employment protection for foreign nationals (McNaughton). This section, where the bill outlines its plan to hold recruiters responsible for repaying workers of any illegal fees that they have been charged and to require that these recruiting services must be licensed in a public registry, is the aspect of this policy that will be addressed (McNaughton).
Stakeholders
Foreign nationals work in all sectors of the labour force, from agriculture to caregiving to frontline service. It is therefore not unreasonable to argue that all Canadians are affected by legislations such as Bill 27, whether it be directly or indirectly. However, the most important and most impacted stakeholder in this section of the Working for Workers Act is, unsurprisingly, migrant workers. In many cases, these workers have been separated from their families and homes, risking everything for the chance at permanent residency and a better life in Canada. Often people of colour coming from disadvantaged countries, these minority groups are hardworking and resolute. Their willingness to take on whatever jobs available to them is what makes them so appealing to employers and to illegitimate recruiting agencies looking for desperate people to scam. Other major stakeholders are the employers themselves, the ones that seek out hiring foreign nationals, as they are also heavily affected by the conditions of Bill 27. Hiring migrant workers allows employers to provide lower wages and worse conditions than they would to Canadian citizens, boosting profits but harming people. While not every employer is on a mission to exploit cheap labour out of migrants, it is the unfortunate truth that many will do whatever it takes to maximize their revenues, which is why they make the choice to illegitimate recruiters. The last significant party that is a stakeholder in Bill 27 are the recruiters, both legal and illegal. Legal recruiting agencies will have to ensure that they are listed in the public registry, and illegal agencies will have to go to greater lengths to accomplish their deceitful goals.
Shortcomings
While, at first glance, it may seem as though Bill 27’s policy amendments provide only benefits for migrant workers by cracking down on the recruiters that charge illegal fees to foreign nationals, in actuality, its promises are not guaranteed. Despite the implementation of the Working for Workers Act in 2021, there are many migrant workers today that still find themselves in undesirable situations at the hands of illegal recruiters. Clearly, the system is in need of further reform. Advocates within the labour movement have criticised aspects of Bill 27, citing that it is underdeveloped in that the proposed fines for infractions are not high enough to dissuade unregistered recruiting agencies from using their schemes to exploit unsuspecting migrants (Keung).
Recommendations
As the first step towards combating these issues and working towards fixing the broken foreign worker system, it is crucial that infraction fines against iniquitous employers and recruiters are greatly increased. When agencies such as these illegally pull thousands of dollars out of disadvantaged migrants, the fines must be substantial enough to ensure that the same thing does not happen again. Thus, the first policy recommendation for Ontario’s Working for Workers Act is that the government should amend this bill to include instructions of specific, automatic, and considerable fines to unlicensed recruiters and employers who use them. This inflation of fines is an imperative first step, however, it is not the full solution to this problem. In order to ensure substantial change, the focus should not only be on enforcing fines to employers who violate Bill 27, but also to prevent infractions from happening in the first place. The way to do this would be to increase the budget for enforcement of Bill 27’s policies. As it currently stands, enforcement efforts exist, but they are not thorough enough to find and solve all instances of worker exploitation, leaving the onus on migrants to fight for their own rights. Being completely new to a country leaves these workers in a very vulnerable position, and so relying on self-report measures to find instances of mistreatment and extortion is not reliable. Instead, the province of Ontario should utilize more well-trained people to go out and gather evidence and complaints from the migrant workers themselves. By doing this, it will give a voice to migrant workers who otherwise may be too afraid to speak out about their experiences. Allowing more room in the budget to allocate towards measures such as these will be more efficient and more effective than waiting until a situation has exacerbated to its breaking point to intervene. Hence, the second policy recommendation is to create a clear budget and plan for expanding and improving the enforcement of Bill 27 to ensure that its policies are not disregarded or overlooked.
Barriers
The implementation of these policy recommendations may not be an entirely seamless process, as there are barriers that may potentially stand in the way of the policy’s success. The first hurdle is that upgrading enforcement efforts could be costly, and it may be difficult to find room in the budget for these increases. Secondly, employers are highly likely to put up some resistance against these policies, as their businesses often rely on the cheap labour they receive from hiring migrant workers. It will therefore be difficult to obtain support for these worker-empowering policies from profit-oriented businesses. However, the potential opportunities that could come from increased fines and enforcement of the Working for Workers Act will serve to assure that this important bill is actually beneficial to the marginalized groups that it aims to protect. If successfully implemented, this recommendations will drastically reduce the amount of worker exploitation and benefit the lives of migrants all across the province of Ontario.
References
Keung, Nicholas. “'Half-Baked' Bill 27 Won't Protect Migrant Workers from Exploitative Recruiters, Say Advocates.” Thestar.com, Toronto Star, 17 Nov. 2021, www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/11/16/half-baked-bill-27-wont-protect-migrant-workers-from-exploitative-recruiters-say-advocates.html.
Levy, Rhonda B, et al. “Ontario, Canada: Bill 27, Working for Workers Act, 2021 Receives Royal Assent.” Littler , Littler Mendelson P.C., 4 Feb. 2022, www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/ontario-canada-bill-27-working-workers-act-2021-receives-royal-assent.
McNaughton, Hon. Monte. “Working for Workers Act, 2021.” Legislative Assembly of Ontario, 25 Oct. 2021, www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-2/bill-27.
Mojtehedzadeh, Sara. “Envelopes of Cash, Unpaid Wages, Shattered Dreams: Labour Board Case Alleges Scheme to Recruit Workers into Wealthy Toronto Neighbourhoods Put Caregivers at Risk.” Thestar.com, Toronto Star, 8 Apr. 2021, www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/04/08/envelopes-of-cash-unpaid-wages-and-shattered-dreams-labour-board-case-alleges-scheme-to-recruit-workers-into-wealthy-toronto-neighbourhoods-put-caregivers-at-risk.html.
Walia, Harsha. “Permanently Temporary: Mandated Migration in Canada.” Border & Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, by Harsha Walia, Haymarket Books, 2021, pp. 155–166.