Photo credit: the Conversation
Canadian authorities should phase out work permits that restrict migrant workers to one employer otherwise known as Closed Work permits.
The Globe and Mail reports that a committee of senators have concluded a new report sfter an in-depth review of the country’s decades-old Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Titled Act Now, the report was released on Tuesday by the Senate committee on social affairs, science and technology.
According to the report, the Temporary Foreign Worker Programme is not working for migrants or employers. It, therefore, recommended a timeliness of three years to phase out closed work permits which tie migrant workers to one employer.
In its place, the report recommended the government looks into sector-specific and regional work permits.
Based on a study the committee first launched in 2022, other recommendations of the report include calls to boost funding to support migrant workers to implement more rigorous and unannounced inspections and to provide migrant workers with more information about their rights to access health care.
However, Gabriel Allahdua who came to Canada as a farm worker under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and was employed under a closed work permit said the recommendation from the Senate committee give him little comfort because he had hoped for speedier action.
Migrant workers in the program often are often victims of wage theft, unsafe working conditions harassment, bullying and other abuses.
