The massive influx of immigrants into the Quebec labor market is forcing awareness of our labor needs, but also of the treatment reserved for them. Welcome to 2023!
Labor Minister Jean Boulet admitted, during a press conference held with the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST), that there is a sharp increase in work accidents among temporary foreign workers. Together, they announced measures aimed at reducing the number of accidents and better protecting these personnel who do not always speak French and who have no knowledge of Quebec legislation.
With the exponential increase in the number of immigrants with temporary status in recent years, the government announced the addition of 10 employees to the CNESST’s “prevention squad”. Unless this squad has a magic wand, this metric is just a drop in the ocean.
Given the thousands of businesses that call on this workforce, this addition is clearly insufficient to explain to these people all of their rights and recourses. Especially since they know neither our laws nor our institutions and do not yet master French. Even if the squad is trilingual, the explanatory documents and the respondents to the CNESST are rarely. We must also admit that even for people born in Quebec, getting by with the CNESST is a challenge in itself.
The minister also claims that he will ensure that companies, employment agencies and recruitment agencies abroad follow the rules. However, several rules exist, and they are blithely overridden by employers, who have no qualms about using humans as a productive commodity.
The examples have hit the news in recent months and have shown that even multinationals heavily subsidized from our taxes do not hesitate to use temporary foreign workers in a way that experts no longer hesitate to qualify as modern slavery. .
Rather than sprinkling a few resources to try to identify the problem, the CNESST must fully play its role, intervene, and enforce the laws so that they have a real deterrent effect on these employers who shame us.
Think about it: these people are recruited by companies that bring them here. These companies must ensure that their basic needs are met and that their rights are respected. But what recourse do these people have if they are mistreated? It is impossible for them to change jobs, even for an identical one, since their permit is only valid for one employer. Competition is non-existent between the different “clients”, the employees are captive and are often very afraid. Fear of being returned home, fear of reprisals.
The real solution is through open permits that allow workers to leave one company to work in another.
Francization courses must also be available in all businesses and for all immigrants, regardless of their status. It is through French that accident prevention in the workplace passes.
It is shameful that in 2023, in Quebec, we treat human beings as an underclass of citizens, when we sorely need them and when we claim to form a democratic society.
To this end, governments must have the will and the courage to put an end to closed employment contracts and abolish closed permits, because here, at home, no one should be a prisoner of their employer.