Program to protect immigrants from workplace violence fails

Experts say that not only has it failed to protect the vulnerable, it has contributed to their re-traumatization.

It has been three years since the government's Vulnerable Worker Open Work Permit Program (VWOWP) began. It was introduced as a way to protect migrant workers facing abuse at the hands of their employers by providing them with an "open work permit," which gives such workers the freedom to choose their employer.

On March 24, at the 24th Metropolis Canada Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, a session was held to discuss the program's shortcomings. A panel led by the Migrant Workers Centre (MWC) discussed the shortcomings of Department of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada staff as a result of their review of the program's processing of applications designed to protect victims of abuse.

"We noticed a lot of inconsistency and confusion around what should be considered workplace violence, even though there is specific guidance on the Ministry's website," explained Amanda Aziz, a lawyer with the Vancouver Migrant Workers Centre.

According to an MWC report released last Wednesday, immigration officials treated only a limited number of cases of financial abuse as violence, completely ignoring psychological abuse. The only exceptions were if the workers themselves provided a significant amount of evidence that the employer had exerted moral pressure on them.

Evidence of some form of financial violence by employers against foreign workers was found in 97 percent of the applications examined in the study. For example, some were forced to work overtime without pay, others were denied wages altogether, or forced to pay fees in order to get a job.

An obvious flaw in the program is also the fact that workers who have suffered financial abuse have sometimes been deported on the basis of information obtained by Ministry officials from their own applications.

At the conference, Aziz pointed out, among other things, the complete lack of interview skills of Ministry officials, which are necessary for filing an application. According to her, it looks more like a very brutal interrogation than an interview with a person who has clearly been mistreated and exploited in the past. The duration of the temporary residence permit issued to a victim of abusive behavior has also been criticized.

"A six-month temporary residence permit for a victim is not enough for us. That period of time is not long enough to heal from the trauma," said Mary Grace De Guzman, chair of the Migrant Workers Center board.

Abused workers who have successfully obtained an open work permit are usually only allowed to work for 12 months. For workers to remain in the country after that time, they must find a new employer to sponsor them through a work permit, which again exposes them to further potential abuse because they are dependent on their employer for their continued right to live in the country.

Among other things, the MWC pointed out that investigations that should be conducted into abusive employers are often not conducted promptly by officials. According to lists regularly submitted by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada, 580 Canadian employers failed to verify that working conditions met adequate labour rights and standards under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program from June 2016 to March 2022.