WHAT YOU CAN DO


Distribute our factsheet New Protections for Live-in Caregivers in your community, available in English, French, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog and Tamil.

ENDORSE a statement on proposed changes to the TFWP here: email The Coalition for Change if your organization would like to sign on.

Download the “Count Me In !” petition in support of change for live-in caregivers and temporary foreign workers and distribute copies to your friends, family, co-workers and community agencies.

Get involved and join Coalition for Change: Caregivers and Temporary Foreign Workers. Phone Sonia Singh at 416-531-0778 x221 to find out how to get involved.

WAC is proud to be an advocate for change, and thus, under current legislation, cannot be a registered charity or issue tax receipts.

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Protection for Live-in Caregivers and Temporary Foreign Workers


Workers action centre protection for temporary foriegn works and live in care givers

The number of temporary foreign workers (TFW) in Ontario has increased by 55 percent in the past five years. At the same time, the growing gap in protection for these workers has become all too evident. Many temporary foreign workers are forced to put up with violations of their rights because they are in Canada on work permits that tie them to one employer, and don’t provide protection if they are sent back home for complaining about working conditions.

At a provincial level, employment standards must be updated and recruitment practices regulated to reduce the barriers that TFW face in accessing their employment standards rights. TFW also must have the right to collective representation and real access to human rights, health and safety protection and workers’ compensation.

At the federal level, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program needs fundamental reforms to address workers’ precarious immigration status and permit workers to access basic rights and entitlements. Changes that are needed include permanent status for TFW on arrival, an end to employer-specific work permits, a right to equal access to social programs and a fair appeals process for repatriations.

WHAT WE'RE DOING NOW


NEW LEGISLATION FOR LIVE-IN CAREGIVERS

As of March 22, 2010 there are new protections for live-in caregivers. The new changes:

  • Ban fees being charged directly or indirectly by recruiters to live-in-caregivers (e.g., recruitment/placement fees and fees for other supplementary services);

  • Stop employers from charging or recovering recruitment/placement fees from live-in-caregivers;

  • Allow live-in-caregivers up to three and a half years to make a complaint on to recover prohibited fees (This is better than the ESA that gives workers 6 months to make claims on unpaid wages);

  • Prohibit reprisals against live-in caregivers for exercising their rights under the legislation (Bill 210);

  • Prohibit an employer or recruiter in Ontario from taking possession of a live-in caregiver’s property, including documents such as passports;

  • Authorize Ministry of Labour employment standards officers to proactively enforce the legislation; and

  • Provide regulation-making authority to add other classes of temporary foreign workers

After many years of organizing to improve conditions for live-in caregivers, these are important changes that could improve the lives of workers, many of whom are women from racialized communities. Sadly, the new changes only apply to live-in caregivers, and not other vulnerable workers under the Temporary Foreign Workers program.

FIGHTING FOR MORE IMPROVEMENTS

Though the new protections for live-in caregivers is a step forward in protecting the rights of vulnerable workers, there is still much work to be done. The Workers’ Action Centre and its allies will continue to fight for more needed changes, including:

  • Extending the protections to ALL workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

  • Ensuring employers and recruitment agencies are jointly liable for any prohibited direct or indirect fee charged to workers regardless of where and how the fee was levied.

  • Extending the 3.5 years time limit to cover all ESA violations for live-in-caregivers and temporary foreign workers.

Read more in the Workers’ Action Centre’s joint submission on Bill 210 and our July 2009 consultation paper on provincial protections needed for Temporary Foreign Workers.

PROPOSED NEW RESTRICTIONS IN THE TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS PROGRAM

Regulations introduced by the federal government on October 9, 2009 essentially deny the right of full status to temporary migrant workers by restricting them to working four years in Canada and barring them from returning to the country for six years.

The Coalition for Change organized a National Day of Action on December 2, 2009 to oppose these changes. In Toronto over 200 people rallied outside the regional office of the federal Immigration Minister. Actions also took place in Montreal, Ottawa and Guelph.

Over 60 national, provincial and local organizations have endorsed a statement on proposed changes to the TFWP.

The federal government has not yet confirmed if these proposed changes will be implemented.

COALITION FOR CHANGE FOR CAREGIVERS AND TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS

WAC is an active member of the newly formed Coalition for Change for Caregivers and Temporary Foreign Workers. WAC is working with the coalition to push the provincial and federal government for real protections for TFW.

WAC RESOURCES


Press Release, March 22, 2010, Bill 210 provides protections for caregivers today but must be extended to cover all workers

Proposed Amendments to Bill 210, An Act to protect foreign nationals employed as live-in caregivers and in other prescribed employment (November 2009)

Submission to the Ministry of Labour, Consultation on Foreign and Resident Employment Recruitment in Ontario (July 2009)