Canadian immigration minister announces new legislation to protect foreign workers.

October 12 2009 by Liam Clifford

After months of trade unions highlighting the problem of foreign workers being mis-treated, Canadian immigration have this week introduced new legislation.

Canadian employers hiring employees from outside of the country are this week told they will have to adhere to newer stricter guidelines on how they treat those workers. Acting after a series of complaints, Canadian immigration authorities have said the new legislation has been brought in to protect specifically temporary foreign workers, who have in the past repeatedly been taken advantage of.

The proposal by Canadian immigration minister, Jason Kenney, is to strengthen laws at a time when workers from abroad are sought to fill positions in key industries. The new laws will protect temporary foreign workers against employers who withhold wages, do not follow guidelines for hours of work and unsafe working conditions.

The Canadian immigration minister has said that offending employers will be banned from hiring foreign workers, as well as their names being published on the Canadian Citizen and Immigration website.

Canadian trade unions have been lobbying the Canadian government to protect the rights of temporary foreign workers for some time. The new legislation comes on the heels of a case of four Filipinos who were forced to pay thousands of dollars in agency fees and were mistreated by the agency who were acting as their employer.

In Canada there has been lots of publicized cases of mistreatment of foreign workers, however very little prosecution. Canadian immigration hopes that this new legislation will secure its future as one of the leading countries for people to travel to and work abroad.

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