Detalles del documento

Imprima y guarde

Informe / Comunicado de prensa

AWA anti-discrimination campaign gains results:‎ Quebec Labour Standards Board responds on the issue of migrant farm workers

Fecha

2010

Autores

Agriculture Workers Alliance

Resumen

Quebec agriculture operations that deduct a housing charge from Temporary Foreign Workers ‎‎(TFWs) have lowered their fee after it was noted the rate they were charging was beyond the ‎maximum allowed under provincial labour regulations. ‎

Título de la serie

AWA E-News

Institución responsable

Agriculture Workers Alliance

Notas

Quebec agriculture operations that deduct a housing charge from Temporary Foreign Workers ‎‎(TFWs) have lowered their fee after it was noted the rate they were charging was beyond the ‎maximum allowed under provincial labour regulations. ‎

The action followed after the Quebec Labour Standards Board advised the Guatemalan ‎consulate, as well as FERME (a farm lobby group) that the $45 a week for housing that had been ‎deducted from about 4,000 Guatemalan Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) was in violation of ‎the $20 a week maximum allowable under provincial labour standards. The $45 charge had ‎originally been negotiated between FERME, the Guatemala authorities, and approved by the ‎federal government.‎
‎ ‎
‎« We are glad the Board has acted to end this flagrant violation of provincial regulations, » says ‎Andrea Galvez, co-ordinator of the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA) support centre in ‎Saint-Rémi, Quebec. « For many years we have voiced our concern about discriminatory ‎contracts and other violations forced on migrant farm workers in Quebec. »‎
‎ ‎
Those concerns led to two complaints filed in Quebec last year, including one with the Human ‎Rights Commission that TFW contracts violated the Charter by denying TFWs equal treatment. ‎That charge is proceeding. A second complaint was filed with the Quebec Labour Standards ‎Board on behalf of 40 Guatemalan TFWs at a Quebec agriculture operation whose housing ‎deductions exceeded the provincial maximum. ‎
‎ ‎
That deduction has now dropped to $20 per week for them, and other TFWs working on Quebec ‎farms, « who altogether were being overcharged more than $100,000 a week,» says Galvez. « ‎It’s been like that since 2003, so a retroactive remedy should also be considered. »‎
‎ ‎
‎« Housing is just one of many issues facing these workers. As we have for the last ten years, the ‎AWA will continue its efforts to make sure the labour and human rights of these workers are ‎respected. »‎

The AWA, in association with UFCW Canada, operates 10 agriculture worker support centres ‎across Canada.‎

Conexiones

Los sectores económicos

Agriculture and horticulture workers

Los grupos destinatarios

Conciencia Pública

Áreas de regulación

Determinación de los salarios decentes y la escasez de mano de obra y Derecho a la igualdad (origen nacional)

Relevancia geográfica

Quebec y Guatemala

Idiomas

Francés, Inglés, y Español