Unethical Summerland Orchardists and Farmers

[matai]

Mexicanos are given luxury accomodations for FREE, plane ticket for FREE to come and work here (because it's foreign workers law), while Canadians eat sheit and sometimes yes, don't even have access to a toilet bowl to let it out. Now, THAT is upsetting.

CANADIANS FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope the MP reads this.

No wonder BC people don't want to do that *bleep* work. I saw an ad in the paper this week: Farm worker needed, hard work, requires bending, heavy lifting, 45/h a week, 6 days a week: $10.25/h.

They post the ads simply because it's a requirement to get TFW in... they WELL know NO Canadian is going to apply for it.

[fluffy]

"Luxury" accommodations ? Give your head a shake. These people, more often than not, are happy to take on the jobs that most Canadians feel they are above. Our social safety net lets people sit at home and watch TV rather than get off their butts and work for a living, why not give the work to someone who actually appreciates it ?

[matai]

"Luxury" accommodations ? Give your head a shake. These people, more often than not, are happy to take on the jobs that most Canadians feel they are above. Our social safety net lets people sit at home and watch TV rather than get off their butts and work for a living, why not give the work to someone who actually appreciates it ?

Pffft... $10/h for a Mexican in Canada is equivalent to $100/h in Mexico. 10 times more. Tell me which Canadian would be unhappy working 45 hours a week at $100/h with free housing and free traveling ticket?

Tell me why we don't pay plane tickets to Canadians to travel from province to province instead and keeping them away from IE and welfare eh? Tell me why the Mexicans are provided accommodations while Canadians are left homeless? THAT pisses the crap out of me.

Any accommodation provided to the Mexicans versus a second hand cardboard box provided to a Canadian as shelter is considered luxury in my book.

[matai]

As for the Quebec pickers, even though they live in misery, they are not miserable... most of them make well over $30/h yet they expect everyone to be at their service for free. That's why I don't pick any of them up when they hitch hike on the road. Mostly because sometimes they don't look super clean too (because my guess is that they don't have access to showers). 99.5% of them also smoke weed daily and drink heavily each day. Yes they love to party but they have one thing in common: They are hard workers and without them, the Okanagan fruits would go nowhere and would simply rot on trees because no one else is interested in doing that dirty work in those conditions.

[Xia33]

Omg. With this sort of attitudes, I am sometimes embarrassed to be Canadian. No one NO ONE deserves this sort of treatment....if Canadians wanted the jobs, they could have them. So far as the quebec pickers.....well, I guess you said it all, didn't you? I don't see the Mexican workers thumbing on the roads, dressed grubby etc., nope, they ride bikes and clean themselves up to go to town on their days off, regardless of their living conditions.

[matai]

Omg. With this sort of attitudes, I am sometimes embarrassed to be Canadian. No one NO ONE deserves this sort of treatment....if Canadians wanted the jobs, they could have them. So far as the quebec pickers.....well, I guess you said it all, didn't you? I don't see the Mexican workers thumbing on the roads, dressed grubby etc., nope, they ride bikes and clean themselves up to go to town on their days off, regardless of their living conditions.

That's bexause the Mexicans DO have good living conditions.

[Xia33]

Right...so that is why this thread exists, correct? Someone just made it all up?

[matai]

Right...so that is why this thread exists, correct? Someone just made it all up?

I just read the full OP and I call BS they can't afford to buy vegetables.

[driveangry]

In my area, there are very few Mexican workers this year, those that are here appear happy, clean. They buy large amounts of groceries at the local grocery store, the one had a huge roll of money when he paid for his groceries.

Reason spreading around for so few Mexican workers is that they were not being paid, getting ripped off by some of the farmers who are of a different race that will remain name less.

The french hippies are here in greater numbers, but appear to be not working as much as in past years, you can't stand near them in the cashier line at the store. They have damaged and/or destroyed the local shower facility. They have been seen breaking into cars and private property. They are not making any friends here, that is for sure.

[Xia33]

I just read the full OP and I call BS they can't afford to buy vegetables.

And that's all you got out of that? Oh, my....open sewers, not able to call for help if needed, etc., and all you got out of it was about vegetables.

[matai]

Employers obligations towards Canadians:
- Nil

Employers obligations towards Mexicains:
-Employers must always arrange and pay for the round-trip transportation (e.g. plane, train, boat, car, bus) of the temporary foreign worker (TFW) to the location of work in Canada, and back to the TFW's country of residence. A portion of these costs can be recovered through payroll deductions in all provinces, except in British Columbia.

-Employers must provide TFWs with free suitable housing (except in British Columbia where a portion of these costs can be recovered through payroll deductions) either on-farm (e.g. bunkhouse) or off-site (e.g. commercial establishment). A copy of the signed contract between the employer and the facility is required for off-site housing (except in cases where the employer is the owner of the dwelling).

-Employers must provide proof that the on-farm or off-site housing has been inspected by the appropriate provincial/territorial/municipal body or by an authorized private inspector with appropriate certifications from the relevant level of government. As proof, employers can submit a copy of the housing inspection report from the previous year, with an expected date for the current year.

-Employers are responsible for any costs that may be associated to having the housing inspected. Under no circumstances can employers recover these costs from the TFW.

-Employers must ensure that all TFWs are registered for provincial/territorial health insurance as soon as they become eligible. The waiting period to be eligible for the provincial/territorial health insurance is available on the Ministry of Health

-Employers must arrange and pay for workplace safety insurance coverage from either:
•the provincial/territorial workplace safety insurance provider (e.g. Workers Compensation Board, or equivalent); or
•a private insurance provider

Etc etc...
http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_ ... ndex.shtml

So in the case of the OP, who did the said inspection? Who's responsible for the housing not being "up to standard"? The farmer should be fined / or denied importing workers for the next 5 years. The Federal government should be held liable for allowing TFW to live in those conditions.

But I keep my mind it all comes to the point that we don't need those workers here, we have enough people out of work like that and if farmers can't hire at minimum wage anymore maybe Canadians would be able to survive a little bit more, by being paid a fair wage for their hard work. When driving down to Oliver / Osoyoos and seeing the multimillion dollar homes sitting on the orchards, I doubt the farmers are too poor to pay more than minimum wage or provide adequate living conditions to TFW AS WELL AS CANADIANS.

[NextGen]

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program was never just about filling jobs. It’s been about undermining wages. The wages of Canadians are continuing to be undermined by the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Internal government documents obtained by the Canada's Federation of Labour show that companies and Employers were given the green light to underpay thousands of Temporary Foreign Workers in 2013. These documents are the latest evidence that the misuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is deliberate, pervasive and not limited to a few sectors of the Canadian economy.

We have had a problem in Canada for some time now, and its time we address this. When I hear the same comments that Farmers make, “locals won't take this job”, its because this type of job is “slave labor” Hard work for no pay, how are you able to survive on those low wages in Canada. The fact is that these Vineyards and Orchardists have mutli million dollar homes and I hate to accuse or point out, but why not pay your employes a good wage? If these owners of these Orchards would, guess what many Canadians would be lining up to take these positions.

I agree all employees no matter where they are from should be given proper living wages and proper living quarters and proper living conditions. End Of Story. I don’t want to hear the repetitive excuses anymore. Time for Canadians to stop ignoring what is happening to these foreign workers here and time for a change for all Canadians so they can have an opportunity to be employed by these farms and not on social assistance or other financial aid.

Simply stated once more we are all grateful to the volunteers that have assisted these Mexicans, when it comes down to it we must care we must make a change.

[LTD]

so are the orchardists required to provide housing or are these people choosing to stay there to save money

[NextGen]

so are the orchardists required to provide housing or are these people choosing to stay there to save money

Employers must provide TFWs with free suitable housing (except in British Columbia where a portion of these costs can be recovered through payroll deductions) either on-farm (e.g. bunkhouse) or off-site (e.g. commercial establishment). A copy of the signed contract between the employer and the facility is required for off-site housing (except in cases where the employer is the owner of the dwelling).

-Employers must provide proof that the on-farm or off-site housing has been inspected by the appropriate provincial/territorial/municipal body or by an authorized private inspector with appropriate certifications from the relevant level of government. As proof, employers can submit a copy of the housing inspection report from the previous year, with an expected date for the current year.

Many of us feel the same way quote taken from McGowan

“The temporary foreign worker program is a train wreck and should be scrapped. This is not a program that can be tweaked or reformed around the edges,” McGowan said Friday. “As long as this program exists, whether it’s tweaked at the margins or not, employers are going to find ways of using temporary foreign workers as pawns to drive down wages and conditions.”

[NextGen]

Update

Squalid setting for South Okanagan seasonal workers

Penticton Western News

Problems faced by migrant farm workers in the South Okanagan go far beyond the two Mexicans found living in squalid housing according to one South Okanagan volunteer.

“But to try to change things anymore, I have given up. It is just like nothing ever changes. And we have been doing this for over six years,” said Sandy Diaz-Hart, who continues to teach English to migrant workers.

The two men, employed under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program at a Summerland Farm, were being housed in a dirty garage. According to Bob Cowles, a Canadian worker who was also working at the farm, conditions were deplorable for the Mexican workers.

“They’re not cattle. They’re not livestock. They’re human beings,” Cowles said.

Pictures taken at the farm show the outdoor cooking area just metres away from the portable toilet. Inside, the men were given pressboard sheets for sleeping mats, while the garage had no electricity or running water. The two men have been removed from the situation and transferred to a farm in the Fraser Valley. But according to Diaz-Hart, their situation isn’t unique.

“There is a lot of problems. I don’t know how the farmers just seem to get away with it. Sometimes I get very upset because it seems like everybody knows, but nobody is doing anything about it,” she said. “Here in Cawston and Keremeos, there has been a lot of incidents, a lot of workers that sometimes cannot handle the treatment, or the abuse or the situation. I know that two just left yesterday and another two got transferred.”

Diaz-Hart said she has heard of situations ranging from overcrowded worker housing, insect infestations and farmers refusing to transport workers to town for shopping (required under SAWP) to tax fraud, with a farmer not supplying T4 slips as required.

“Everybody is making money out of these guys. They pay CPP. When would they ever collect the pension? Never. They pay their own health insurance, they pay unemployment, they pay taxes,” said Diaz-Hart. “Everybody is benefiting from these guys being here, but we don’t seem to be looking after them in the way we should.”

BCFGA president Fred Steele said what happened with the two workers in Summerland was unfortunate but proof the system works.

“It’s a complaint-based system and that is the way it works. My understanding is they removed them and they are working somewhere else,” said Steele. “If somebody complains to the BCFGA, we immediately get in touch with the consulate. At the same time, the BCFGA can’t go throughout the hills and woods looking for problems either.”

Diaz-Hart said many of the workers are not fluent in English, so communicating their complaint can pose a problem, and are afraid to speak out, fearing to be sent home or face reprisals.

“The Mexican consulate wants everything to be really good, they don’t want anyone to make waves,” she said.

Steele said the workers shouldn’t be afraid to come forward, reiterating that the two workers from Summerland weren’t sent home.

“That wouldn’t be fair either. But if it is a question of housing or it is a question of transportation or any of those things and the rules are not being followed, then we have to know about it,” said Steele. “If somebody has a complaint, we want to hear about it. If we do not look after and make sure this program is fair and run properly, we are going to run into the problems that happened with the Temporary Foreign Worker program.”

Steele said there isn’t any formal instruction for employers using the SAWP program to educate them about their responsibilities, but the BCFGA does work through the application process with those that ask.

“We have made it abundantly clear again and again, follow the rules. We don’t need the problems, the workers don’t need the problems and the industry doesn’t need the problems,” said Steele, adding that just a few bad employers can affect the image for the entire industry.

Diaz-Hart said conditions for the migrant workers are better than they once were.

“There are some farmers that are very conscious, and have very good conditions for the guys. But there are some that are not so good,” she said. “There is so much more people need to know, that people need to be aware of.”

About 1,500 foreign workers are employed under the SAWP program each year.

They begin arriving in March, taking up work in orchards and vineyards and heading home after harvest.

As far as many of us are concerned, the program does not work properly and should be revamped or scrapped completely. This is not an isolated situation this is becoming all too common. Something needs to be done.