“Shameful”, “disturbing revelations”, “an affront”: the opposition parties in Quebec and the largest health union are outraged by the fate reserved by the placement agency Groupe AMS for new arrivals.
The duty revealed Monday that immigrants without work permits were paid $10 an hour to clean establishments of the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. The placement agency Groupe AMS has supplied workers to at least four CIUSSS in Quebec. The owner on paper, Marc Turcotte, admitted to paying less than the legal minimum, calling these employees “volunteers” while waiting to receive their work permit.
The boss designated by the employees is rather his partner, Solange Crevier, a serial fraudster known in particular for having been hired for two years at Desjardins under the usurped identity of a close relative. She is currently serving an 18-month sentence behind bars, a sentence she tried to appeal, arguing that she had to “ensure the activities of the company which [son conjoint] is the owner”, i.e. AMS Group.
“We will not tolerate underpaid people in hospitals, we denounce these practices, it is intolerable”, thunders Monday morning Réjean Leclerc, president of the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN). It is for him a “double fault” to attack newcomers, who do not always know their rights and who are all the more difficult to defend.
He vehemently denounces the advent of private healthcare. The issue of health agencies “worries us greatly,” he said, since they “cost more,” in addition to not being accountable. “We do business with private providers and they find ways to avoid the law, any form of contract and collective agreements,” he complains.
The CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal refused our requests for an interview and has not indicated how it intends to remedy this situation. “Why does the CIUSSS almost wash its hands of it? » asks Mr. Leclerc.
This public body gives the impression that the agency is the sole employer in its responses to Duty, he observes. However, the Labor Standards Act indicates that the client, the CIUSSS in this case, is just as responsible for unpaid salaries as the agency with which it contracted. “That we find ourselves at this level is an affront to past generations who fought for our rights. We fight for that and we flout them as if nothing had happened,” fumes the union president.
Almost a third of agencies inspected non-compliant
“It is shameful to see that this company does not respect Quebec laws and exploits workers, particularly immigrants,” responded the official opposition health spokesperson, André Fortin. The Liberal MP called on the government to “withdraw all its contractual links” with the agency and invited the ministry to act quickly “to ensure that such situations do not happen again and help immigrant workers obtain status in the Quebec.”
“It is unacceptable that a company exploits people’s distress to make profits and especially since the Quebec state benefits from it,” declared the responsible person in charge of immigration, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard. . He also called on the CAQ to put in place “rapid solutions to allow these people to work legally”, in particular proposing a rapid work authorization.
“How can a public institution, a CIUSSS, do business with bandits like this? We must shed light on the situation and ensure that these people have not committed violence elsewhere,” also reacted his colleague Vincent Marissal, responsible for solidarity in health matters.
At the Government Acquisitions Center (CAG), the AMS Group agency is in fact still among the list of “awardees” for two contracts, that is to say among the list of companies pre-approved to offer services in health establishments. The CAG refused to comment on a particular case, referring to the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) for any investigation process. The CAG could not say whether it would be notified of such an investigation.
The CNESST could not confirm whether an investigation was underway for this company “for reasons of confidentiality”. Since 2020, employment agencies must hold a license. The AMS Group agency holds such a permit, but not the SSAD Group, housed in the same offices and at the same telephone number.
More than 2,500 employment agencies have appeared in the register since 2020, in all areas and not just health; the CNESST revoked 3 permits and suspended 95 others.
Nearly a third of the employment agencies that the CNESST inspected last year were not compliant, either with their obligations as an agency or with labor standards. “More critical” elements of non-compliance, even “serious offenses such as non-compliance with the minimum wage”, concerned “less than 10%” of client agencies and companies. Only 21 inspections were carried out at client companies (which are like the CIUSSS in the case of our survey) in 2023.
The Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, had not responded to our requests for an interview at the time of writing these lines.
“Disturbing revelations this morning, which join others of the same type in recent weeks on the working conditions of immigrants,” said Pascal Paradis, spokesperson for the Parti Québécois (PQ). in matters of work and employment. “Government entities cannot be tolerated taking part in such a practice, which raises serious questions about its legality and ethics,” he added. The PQ criticizes the Coalition Avenir Québec for having “lost control of the working conditions of immigrants,” says Mr. Paradis.
The hierarchy was aware
At least one person with supervisory duties had been informed that an agency employee was paid below the minimum wage, Jean-François Dubé, the president of the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île workers’ union, was able to confirm. -de-Montreal-CSN. This person “notified the head of department, who advised further to correct the situation,” he said.
This type of situation is not unique, but Mr. Dubé notes that “some other cases simply do not reach management.” At least 36 maintenance workers who worked for agencies have been hired directly by the CIUSSS in recent weeks, he assures.
One of the employees who confided in Duty was in fact approached by the CIUSSS. “I said I was waiting for my work permit,” explains Jean Pierre, using an assumed first name for fear of reprisals. The talent acquisition center of expertise instead put him in contact with a person responsible for international recruitment. “But she called me back to tell me that they will only recruit elsewhere, we will look for them internationally. We are spending millions while I am already here,” laments this man.
A public relations officer from the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal indicated that the public body stopped using the services of the Groupe AMS agency after an exhaustive check of the validity of work permits.
The $10 per hour that employees received by bank transfer is below the minimum wage, but also less than half the hourly rate in effect for tasks of this nature in the Montreal region. There is in fact a decree for public building maintenance personnel which now sets the salary at $20.30 per hour for cleaning such as sweeping and light maintenance of toilets.
“We are aware that this is a problem in the industry, more or less compliant agencies and the use of these to exploit workers,” explains Caroline Dalpé about the general context. She is general director of the Joint Committee for the Maintenance of Public Buildings in the Montreal region, responsible for enforcing the decree in question. Undeclared work and the exploitation of people without work permits are concerns, she says, “and even more than that, it is part of our priorities”.