UN condemns Canada's temporary foreign worker program as a 'breeding ground' for contemporary slavery

Toronto – August 14, 2024 – A new UN report condemns Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker program in a scathing indictment; the report reiterates many of the same criticisms that UFCW has been issuing for decades about systemic exploitation within the system.  

The report by Tomoya Obokata, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, states that the "Temporary Foreign Worker Program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights."

The Temporary Foreign Work Program requires that workers' migration status depends on an employer-specific, closed work permit, which creates a fundamental systemic power imbalance between employer and worker. Workers have little to no resources against an unfair employer, as they are dependent on their employer for housing, health care and migration status. In addition, the report calls out how, for many seasonal workers, the fear of losing their jobs and being deported by debt bondage.

UFCW has spent decades advocating for migrant workers and calling on the Federal and Provincial governments to reform the program and allow migrant workers full human and labour rights; it is a national disgrace and embarrassment for Canada that the program is conducted in this way. UFCW publishes an annual report on the Status of Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada and has lobbied for decades in Ottawa for changes to the program.

The report calls special attention to the lack of trade union rights for migrant workers in Canada, saying "All workers should have trade union rights, but barriers exist for migrant workers. They are not always represented by unions, especially in the agricultural and care sectors, where all workers lack federal union rights. Under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, workers cannot negotiate their working conditions, as their contracts are negotiated between the Government and countries of origin. The Special Rapporteur also met with some workers who had been instantly dismissed for exercising their trade union rights."

Canada’s temporary work programs must reflect the ILO’s Decent Work Guidelines for the Agri-Food Sector, including the core principle of rights at work. Migrant agricultural workers are the backbone of Canada’s agri-food industry: they are entitled to fair and decent work.

In addition, while the Agri-Food Pilot allows for some pathways to permanent residence for migrant agricultural workers, the UN report states that more clear pathways to permanent residency are necessary for migrant workers.

The report ends with a series of recommendations, including a call for the Canadian government to end the use of closed work permit regimes and to allow all workers the right to choose and changes their employers.