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Foreign workers require better protection: federation

03.07.2008 10:00 Shopping - Source: cbc.ca

The P.E.I. Federation of Labour is asking the province to enact stronger legislation to protect temporary foreign workers.

According to documents obtained by CBC News, some of the 100 Russians now working at the Ocean Choice fish-processing plant in Souris were charged 12,000 rubles each — about $530 Cdn — by a recruiter. That's in addition to the money Ocean Choice paid the recruiter.

Ocean Choice won't say how much that was, but recruitment fees can run in the thousands of dollars per worker.

Charging foreign workers recruitment fees is illegal in many provinces but not in P.E.I. In a meeting last week with provincial cabinet, the P.E.I. Federation of Labour called for better protection of people such as the Russian workers. President Carl Pursey described the current legislation as a mishmash.

"There's some federal legislation that covers it, and some provincial that covers it, and no one knows because they speak a different language if they're covered by anything," said Pursey.

"[They don't know] if they're receiving the rights they're entitled to."

The federation would like legislation similar to that introduced this spring in Manitoba. It requires foreign recruitment agencies to be registered in Canada, and makes charging workers a fee for their own recruitment illegal.

The federation is also asking the province to follow the lead of provinces like Alberta, by hiring labour inspectors to deal specifically with foreign workers — people who either speak the workers' language or could bring in a translator.

Internal Links

Foreign recruiter to be investigated by P.E.I. plant

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