A recent review of studies of the temporary foreign worker program in Canada is making recommendations to improve conditions for migrant workers.
Decent Work and Temporary Stay: An Overview of the ILO Agri-Food Guidelines Affecting Migrant Workers in Canada was a review of 200 studies from 2020-2024 that examined how the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Decent Work Guidelines were being applied in Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario in the meat packing, agriculture and seafood processing sectors.
The recommendations from the review include eliminating employer-specific work permits and allowing farm workers to join a union to bargain for collective rights.
"We know what the problem is, we just have to get to implementing a solution. For the federal government to open up these work permits," said Raluca Bejan, an associate professor in Dalhousie's School of Social Work.
She said those employer-specific work permits leave workers dependent on their employer and makes exercising labour rights risky.
Like in the case of Antonio, 29, from Guatemala who has worked at a local greenhouse for the six years. Through a translator at the United Food and Commercial Workers union office in Leamington he told WindsorNewsToday.ca that he is afraid to bring up health concerns to his supervisors. He said he does not want to get in trouble and be sent back home.
Antonio described working 14-15 hour days with an injury to his arm and being told to keep working. He was not given any time off to seek medical attention.
Bejan said reports indicate eliminating employer specific work permits and introducing collective bargaining would improve work conditions like this because it would give workers the option to find work somewhere else.
"It's the fact that their employment, not just their employment their visa, their right to stay in Canada is tied to their employer," said Bejan. "In any situation, if I don't like my job I can go get another job but they don't have that choice."
The full study can be found here.
