Fighting for foreign workers' rights: Group seeking approval for class action lawsuit

Jerson Sipac Larios, left, and Angel Anibal Colon Sanum, both temporary foreign workers from Guatemala clear a field in preparation for grain corn planting at Quinn Farm in Notre-Dame-de-l'Ile-Perrot, west of Montreal, on Sunday, June 4, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

The association that looks out for the rights of house and farm workers (DTMF) sought approval for a class action lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court on Thursday to oppose closed work permits, which bind foreign workers to a specific employer. According to the organization, these permits run contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The class action petition calls for this type of work permit to be recognized as unconstitutional, since it places workers in vulnerable situations while they are dependent on their employer, and therefore more likely to be mistreated.

Major union groups the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) and the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) support the association's initiative.

"Even if they (workers) have rights on paper, there's always the fear of being returned to their country, there are always threats from employers, they're afraid of reprisals," said Katia Lelièvre, vice-president of the CSN, at a press conference outside the Montreal courthouse on Friday morning.

She pointed out that the union represents "thousands" of immigrant workers, many with temporary status, and that the CSN sees the issues surrounding closed permits.

On Sept. 6, following a two-week visit to Canada, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Tomoya Obokata, asserted that the closed work permit system makes foreign workers vulnerable to a form of modern slavery "as they cannot denounce abuses suffered without fear of deportation," the UN website states

Lelièvre reiterated the Special Rapporteur's conclusion. "It's embarrassing for Canada to think how we're going to lecture countries like China on human rights, when we ourselves are unable to respect Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that all human beings are born free and equal," she said.

"For us, people must be free to choose their employer. No Quebecer has to prove that he or she is vulnerable in the workplace in order to change jobs, and that's what they (foreign workers) have to do," she continued.

The class action claim also calls for compensation for workers who have been harmed by being under duress as a result of a closed work permit.

"The award of damages is appropriate and just, in particular to compensate for the harm suffered by employer-linked migrant workers, to vindicate their Charter rights and to deter the Government of Canada from violating them in the future," reads the document, filed in English in Montreal.

"The discriminatory attitudes underlying the introduction of employer liaison measures have led the Government of Canada to ignore the human rights and dignity of the workers concerned and the foreseeable harm that employer liaison would cause them," the DTMF Association also states in the class action application.

This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Sept. 23, 2023.