A group of temporary foreign workers from Serbia have not been able to find new employment, after walking off the job at the Golden Ears Bridge construction project.
VANCOUVER
A group of temporary foreign workers from Serbia have not been able to find new employment, after walking off the job at the Golden Ears Bridge construction project.
Eighty temporary foreign workers (TFWs) left their employment in September at the $808 million Golden Ears Bridge construction project in Metro Vancouver.
They had not been paid for two weeks by Baulex Projects Ltd., which is an Eastern European labour broker.
“We are still working with them to find employment,” said Dean Homewood, business representative for the Construction and Specialized Workers Union 161.
“With the economic slowdown, there is not much work out there for temporary foreign workers.”
Regina Brodersen, the British Columbia Construction Association’s director of human resources agreed that the labour market situation is extremely difficult for temporary foreign workers.
“The crux of the problem here is there is hardly a company that will be able to get an LMO (Labour Market Opinion) now, because they can’t show that they are having a hard time finding workers,” she said.
“Only companies that still have an open LMO will be able to hire a TFW.”
LMOs, which are issued by Human Resources and Social Development Canada, assess the potential impact that hiring a TFW will have on Canada’s labour market.
“We have been successful in placing about a dozen guys, but there are still more than fifty in Canada actually looking for work,” said Homewood.
“We are still collecting resumes and they had to fill out forms to extend their stay in Canada.
“The contractor also has to fill out a form so the TFW can change employers.”
Under the TFW program, permits are issued that allow workers to be employed with a specific company.
If that employer goes out of business, fires or lays off a worker, they must return to their home country.
They are usually not allowed to seek other employment for the remainder of their work permit.
In this case, Homewood is trying to find these workers employment as carpenters, iron workers, masons and rebar installers. Many of these workers have more than one skill.
“We are looking at the whole gamut of work, but we are also making sure they get a Canadian wage,” he said.
Initially, Homewood was working to have these workers put directly on the payroll of Bilfinger Berger, who is the general contractor on the project.
However, Bilfinger said they were no longer needed on the project.
Then the Serbian workers, with the help of the union, tried to apply for Employment Insurance (EI), because they had EI premiums deducted from their paycheques. However, they were not able to collect.
In October, the union announced that it was working with the B.C. government to get the Serbian workers emergency funds for rent and food.
“They got a couple of payments from the Department of Social Development and Housing,” explained Homewood.
“They got between $500 and $600 a month depending on if they had dependents or not. Most of the guys got between two to three months in payments.”
The payments were cut off when the union was able to recover some of the money from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that Baulex owed the workers.
“We were successful in getting the 10 per cent holdback and three weeks in wages that had not been given to these workers,” said Homewood.
“We got $240,000 that has been distributed to most of the workers.”
Baulex was also responsible for paying the workers’ return airfare, but the company has since disappeared.
Now that the holdback money and back pay has either run out, been sent home or used to return home, the union is making another effort to get the remaining workers EI.
“They still may be able to get some assistance through employment standards,” said Homewood.
“So, we reapplied in January. They paid a lot of money into the system. They should be able to get some money out.”
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