‘It’s like a cage’: Foreign workers who quit Canadian Tire speak out about feeling trapped by work permits

Author(s): Luck, S.

Date: 2024

Resource: CBC News Nova Scotia.

Rowell Pailan spends his days applying for jobs in factories, in restaurants, in shops. He’s ready to take any kind of work.

Last September, Pailan quit his job with the company he came to Canada to work for over what he says are disputes about his treatment, including hours and wages. Now, he can’t find an employer willing to do the paperwork to change his closed work permit — a standard part of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program that ties workers to specific companies.

He knows the end date on that work permit means time is ticking on his Canadian dream. […]

McMaster University professor Catherine Connelly says she was “shocked, but also not that surprised” by what the workers allege they experienced at the Etobicoke store.

She says that in her view, closed work permits are one of the “worst aspects” of the TFW program because they can facilitate abuse.

“It literally does trap the worker. It ties them to the workplace,” said Connelly, who specializes in human resources and management and has spent the past 10 years studying and interviewing temporary foreign workers and their employers.

“And so people endure considerable mistreatment.” […]

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Related Research Areas: Temporary and Gig Workers