Difficult-to-understand contracts, deductions of hundreds of dollars from pay, regrets… Mexican welders recruited by a Sherbrooke company say they have been victims of multiple abuses in Quebec, even though they were unionized.
The duty collected testimonials from four temporary workers recruited in Mexico in 2020 by Dalkotech, a metal parts assembly plant in Sherbrooke.
“I experienced a lot of humiliation. I wouldn’t want other people to go through the same thing,” said one of the men, Juan Alberta Mendoza Garcia, from Mexico, where he returned.
After months of waiting and formalities, the four welders arrived in Quebec in September 2021 with a three-year contract in their pocket and the dream of coming to settle here with their families.
When they received their first paychecks, they found that large sums had been deducted from their wages. These averaged $201 a week, found THE Duty by consulting dozens of pay stubs that give no indication of the purpose of the deductions.
The gross salary of $1000 increased to just over $500. “It was impossible to live here and send money to my family,” said welder Victor Manuel Del Angel Olvera.
“My wife questioned me a lot,” said Jonathan Martinez Moreno. She wanted a divorce. I was supposed to earn more because I was in Canada, but I was sending less. She thought I had another wife here. »
Isidro Felipe Lozano Ortega, another worker, was furious with the recruitment agency. “She didn’t tell us the truth. […] If I had known, I would never have come. »
The surprise was all the greater since they did not know that the tax was going to deprive them of a quarter of their pay from the start.
The current management of Dalkotech — a company that was bought by GRYB Canada and whose new boss is Rémi Beaudoin — as well as the recruitment agency in Mexico deny having misinformed them. “Sometimes, in the enthusiasm, the worker can forget that we explained to him”, advances Luc Gauvin, president of ImmigrEmploi.
Debt of $4,500 per worker
The four men are however formal and claim to have asked for explanations, in vain, about their pay. According to them, it was not until mid-November, two months after their arrival, that company boss Jean Archambault gave them each a list of the sums they owed him. The equivalent of $4500 each.
The list included airfare, airport fees, health insurance, hotel costs during quarantine (due to COVID-19), grocery costs, cost of a car loan, registration costs and winter tires.
Surprised and angry, the workers asked to see Mr. Archambault to obtain an explanation. During a meeting, on December 2, 2021, the boss told them that he had made them ” a treat (a “gift” in Spanish) since he hadn’t charged them a work permit fee.
In Quebec, the Act respecting labor standards prohibits employers from charging temporary workers the cost of plane tickets and their health insurance when they earn less than the median salary, which was $23.08 at the time. time. The four men earned $17.59 an hour.
Prohibited by law, but allowed by a special program
Gold, The duty found that companies could bill them for these expenses between 2017 and 2022 under a “simplified processing” program aimed at addressing labor shortages in key sectors.
The program affected jobs like doctor, human resources manager, auditor, high-paying fields less affected by the payment of deductions.
In 2017, however, the Quebec government integrated the welding profession into its program, a low-wage job.
An unfair situation, according to the Center for Immigrant Workers (CTI), which came to the aid of Juan, Isidro, Victor and Jonathan. “Just because it was legal doesn’t mean it was right,” says its coordinator, Joey Calugay.
The duty asked the federal and Quebec governments why they exposed welders to this measure at the time.
Quebec and Ottawa replied that at the time, the inclusion of the trade of welder stemmed from the level of specialization, and not from the salary. They further report that the program was overhauled overall in 2022 to provide more protections for workers.
So if the four men had arrived a year later, their boss would not have had the right to do so.
In addition, the Act respecting labor standards stipulates that the employer has the obligation to indicate on the pay stub the nature of the deductions and to obtain the employee’s signed agreement, which the latter can revoke at all times.
Boss and agency defend themselves
GRYB Canada’s CEO, Rémi Beaudoin, said he had never heard of this story before the call from the Duty. As for director Jean Archambault, he has since left the company.
After checking with his staff, Mr. Beaudoin contradicts the version of the workers and affirms that they were informed about what they had to pay one or two weeks after their hiring (in September). “The guys told me they tried to [le] fully explain to them […]. Because we wanted to keep them anyway, they were good workers, ”he said.
As for the recruitment agency, President Luc Gauvin recalls that the workers have signed contracts three times obliging them to pay these deductions.
Months before coming to Quebec, they first signed a standard contract from the Quebec government which stipulated that they did not have to pay transportation costs. However, the document also indicated, in small print, that the clause “did not apply to positions on the List of professions eligible for simplified treatment”.
Then, two weeks before they took the plane, ImmigrEmploi asked them to sign a “cash advance agreement” which indicated that they owed the company money, but without specifying the amount.
Why did you agree to sign? Victor points out that he had no choice but to sign because he had “already left [son] work in Mexico.
The recruiting agency told them they had no choice, says Jonathan. “We were told: ‘You have to, because otherwise there is no plane ticket.’ »
Asked about it, the boss of the agency ensures that his staff takes the time to “explain” everything to recruits.
Rémi Beaudoin mentions that the documents that Dalkotech temporary workers must sign are now more detailed.
unionized workers
The four men were also union members. Each week, they shelled out union dues ranging from $10 to $15 out of their pay. All say they had no support from the union representing them, Steelworkers Local 7531.
Victor points out that no one from the union came to meet them when they arrived to explain their role. The manager of the Sherbrooke Actions interculturelles organization, Jasmin Chabot, who tried to help them, claims to have also alerted the union, without much success.
The union defended itself for not having acted. “There were no complaints from the workers,” said Stéphane Néron, representative of the Sherbrooke section of the Syndicat des Métallos (FTQ). He adds that his union would have acted if it had known. However, the union’s office was informed “after the fact” and “it was too late to file a grievance”.
The union representative acknowledges that the unions are a bit overwhelmed by the entry of temporary workers. “It’s relatively new, the phenomenon of temporary workers. In terms of the rights of these workers, their contracts and their arrival, we are starting to be aware of all that. »
Between hope and regret
In December 2022, months after the four workers left, Steelworkers representatives sought to reach them to collect their testimony for an investigation. But the four men no longer had confidence. Instead, they turned to the CTI, and filed complaints with the Standards, Equity, Health and Safety Commission (CNESST) and Service Canada.
At the CNESST, several complaints (pecuniary, harassment) were dismissed out of hand because the plaintiffs “had not exhausted” their union’s remedies.
Service Canada also investigated, and found nothing against the company.
Today, Isidro and Jonathan work for another company in Centre-du-Québec. After leaving Dalkotech, in June 2022, they managed to convince another employer to take all the steps to obtain new closed work permits for them and hire them. They say they have no problem with their new employer and are waiting for their families to join them, hoping to settle in Quebec.
Juan and Victor were less fortunate. The company fired them one after the other in 2022, citing pretexts that they are now contesting before the Administrative Labor Tribunal. After leaving Dalkotech, Juan got into debt to buy a car and survive while looking for another job. Without success. He returned home devastated, in debt and diagnosed with depression.
Victor also had to go into debt when he was looking for a new employer in Quebec, but he finally found it. His family joined him in Estrie, but his wife has not yet received her work permit.
When asked if his situation is better today than before he left Mexico, he replies that “it’s difficult”, that “it was better” before. “But I think it will get better,” he concludes.