Union group calling for inquiry into Alberta's temporary foreign worker program
THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON - The head of a coalition of building trade unions says Alberta's temporary foreign worker program is a mess.
Ron Harry of the Alberta Building Trades Council says it needs to be closely examined to expose and fix major problems that are causing grief for workers and their families.
The council has been following recent media coverage of the benefits that were supposed to be paid to the widow of a Chinese worker killed at an oilsands construction site last year.
It turned out the worker's mother and sister had been receiving thousands of dollars worth of workers compensation cheques instead of the man's widow, who was rightfully entitled to the money.
The widow recently began receiving the money she's owed.
Harry says the payment errors highlight the need for a formal inquiry.
"A public inquiry will expose the flaws in the program and hopefully make recommendations that will rectify the conditions that workers face coming into Alberta," Harry said Friday in a release.
Two Chinese labourers were killed in April 2007 after the collapse of a roof of a large oil storage that was under construction at the Canadian Natural Resources Horizon oilsands plant near Fort McMurray. An investigation of the deaths was recently completed and is now being reviewed by provincial labour and justice officials.
The workers did not belong to a union, but were covered by group insurance and were also eligible for workers compensation payments.
But the man's widow revealed that her husband had only been paid fraction of the amount that other oilsands workers had been getting because the Chinese company that employed him appeared to have taken the bulk of his earnings.
Harry says this situation highlights the finance abuse that some foreign temporary workers have been facing.
"These folks are not likely to complain when their employer cheats them or asks them to do unsafe work," he said. "The temporary foreign worker crisis is only going to get worse."
The building trades council represents more than 50,000 unionized construction workers from 16 affiliated unions and 22 locals.
[ 2008-06-20 ]
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