David Rodriguez says he was abruptly fired from his job after standing up to his abusive employer less than two months after arriving in Toronto from Mexico in 2022 to work as a cook.
The 39-year-old was one of several temporary foreign workers employed at a downtown restaurant, enduring harsh working conditions that he says included aggressive behaviour from the owner and unpaid overtime.
When Rodriguez raised his concerns, his boss fired him on the spot, he says, leaving him unable to find new work, as his status in the country was tied exclusively to his employer.
It has taken Rodriguez more than a year to secure a work permit with a new employer.
“It feels like a new kind of slavery,” Rodriguez told the Star. Employers can “buy you, get you here and then they feel like they own you … like they have the right to treat you in a bad way and nothing will happen to them.”
The treatment Rodriguez endured is not uncommon in the food services sector, advocates say — and that’s raising alarms as fast food chains and other restaurants are now hiring temporary foreign workers at a rapid clip as they continue to grapple with labour shortages.
Originally designed to fill jobs Canadians could not or would not take — including agricultural workers, domestic workers and some highly skilled jobs — Canada’s temporary foreign worker (TFW) program is increasingly being used to provide staff for restaurants and fast food chains, including some Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, A&W, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza franchises.
The number of foreign workers in Canada’s $100-billion food service sector has surged, shooting up by more than 4,000 per cent between 2016 and 2023, along with huge increases in the number of TFWs working in the health care sector and construction.
As the program ballooned, so have the number allegations of abuse and fraud — to the point where earlier this week Canadian Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault declared that the “abuse and misuse of the TFW program must end,” and promised more stringent oversight to keep “bad actors” in check.
Whether the measures will be enough to solve the TFW program’s problems remains to be seen. Certainly, some advocates are not hopeful.
“These steps are meaningless and they’re going to be ineffective,” said Chris Ramsaroop, an activist with Justicia for Migrant Workers. “Workers are still employed under tied work permits and this is the foundation of why workers are being abused.”
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ToggleA rapid expansion
Overall demand for foreign workers has seen a substantial increase. Employers were given the green light to hire almost 240,000 temporary foreign workers in 2023, according to data from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) — more than double the number in 2018.
But the rise in the restaurant sector is much more dramatic.
In 2023, Canadian employers were authorized to hire 8,333 foreign workers to fill positions as food counter attendants and kitchen helpers — nearly double the 4,478 positions approved in 2022 and a huge increase from the 198 positions approved in 2016, according to data from ESDC.
The TFW program is intended as a “last resort for employers to fill jobs for which qualified Canadians are not available,” according to ESDC. But critics say positions in the food service sector are increasingly being occupied by a precarious and vulnerable workforce simply to keep wages low.
Labour shortages have been severe in the food services sector, which relies on cheap labour and rapid turnover to make a profit, as many workers left the industry during the pandemic in pursuit of higher earnings and job security.
And the sector is still reeling. In the fourth quarter of 2023, nearly 50 per cent of food and beverage businesses anticipated labour shortages as a major obstacle, according to Statistics Canada.
“The temporary foreign worker program is spreading beyond what it was originally intended for,” said Jim Stanford, economist and director of think tank Centre for Future Work. “This has become an opportunity for employers to shave labour costs and use this pool of lower cost, very vulnerable labour … instead of improving their own conditions and wages.”
A “help wanted” sign is posted at a storefront along Queen St. W. in Toronto.
Lance McMillan Toronto Star file photo
Staff that can’t leave
To hire a temporary foreign worker, an employer must first submit a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to ESDC for approval, demonstrating there is a need for a foreign worker to fill a position for which no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available.
While the vast majority of workers who enter Canada through the TFW program are still employed in agriculture, food service supervisors, food counter attendants and kitchen helpers received the highest number of LMIA approvals last year after farm and greenhouse workers.
Approvals for cooks shot up to 11,977 in 2023 from 2,668 in 2016, and approvals for food service supervisors jumped to 10,409 in 2023 from 1,967 in 2016, according to ESDC.
Franchise Management Inc., which owns and operates fast food franchises in Canada for Subway, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut, said in an email that the TFW program has allowed it to address labour shortages as “some communities lack the population base to meet the demand for labour.
“In 2023, we were cleared to hire 140 TFWs for our over 300 restaurants across Canada,” Franchise Management said, adding that this number decreased significantly in 2024 as “availability of local workers in many communities has improved.”
Restaurants Canada, the industry’s largest lobby group, estimates there are currently 73,500 job vacancies in the food and hotel industries.
“From quick-service restaurants to fine dining to national chains, many of our members are struggling to keep enough staff to welcome guests,” Restaurants Canada said in an email.
“There are particular challenges facing operators in rural and remote communities with an aging population and inadequate labour forces.”
The group in a statement on Tuesday said it supports the government’s announcement “that it is considering new regulations aimed at enhancing the integrity of the (TFW program) and is seeking long-term solutions to address the labour shortage.”
Some 47,780 work permits have been issued for food-service positions since the beginning of 2022, Restaurants Canada said, adding that the number of TFWs in the industry is expected to drop “as the labour market recovers.”
The Canadian Franchise Association on its website says “the main benefit (of the TFW program) for business owners is that it guarantees a worker will stay employed with them for the term of the agreement.”
“They don’t need to worry about a candidate switching to a different role in a different company, since the foreign worker they hire through this program can work only for their business for a period of two years.”
Deena Ladd, executive director of the Workers’ Action Centre, agrees that immigration is needed for Canada’s labour force development, but say that without permanent status and open work permits, the threat of deportation and exploitation always looms.
Richard Lautens/Toronto Star file photo
Vulnerable to exploitation
Temporary foreign workers can’t just quit and find another job like Canadian residents can, and that’s what makes them so vulnerable to exploitation, experts say.
Workers with precarious immigration status who are tied to one employer, such as David Rodriguez, worry that complaining about an employer could cost them their job — and their legal status in Canada.
And the food service industry has a history of abuse of the foreign worker program.
Reports of alleged abuses of the program by restaurant owners, including 2014 allegations against a McDonald’s franchise in B.C., led to a federal probe and new regulations, including a cap on the number foreign workers employers that can be hired and limiting low-wage workers to no more than 10 per cent of a company’s workforce. Employers were also barred from hiring TFWs in regions where unemployment was above six per cent.
In April 2022, Ottawa changed the TFW regulations again, allowing employers to hire migrants for up to 30 per cent of their workforce to help fill a record number of job vacancies.
But under pressure to lower the number of temporary residents in the country, the federal government in March said it would reduce the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers a business can hire back down to 20 per cent, with an exception for construction and health-care sectors.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald said in an email said that new regulations “aim to increase protection” for TFWs against mistreatment.
MacDonald pointed to several pathways for temporary workers to gain permanent residency status, but the necessary qualifications can be difficult to obtain for workers, requiring them to have a certain level of education and even a letter from the very employers that have been exploiting them.
Both Stanford and Deena Ladd, executive director of the Workers’ Action Centre, agree that immigration is needed for Canada’s labour force development, but say that without permanent status and open work permits, the threat of deportation and exploitation always looms.
“Workers are needed, and if they’re good enough to work then they’re good enough to come to Canada with status upon arrival,” Ladd said. “Once you start tying people to work permits that are connected to industries which already have high rates of violations, we are indeed setting up a system for abuse.”
Stanford said the labour shortage narrative “was never convincing” especially as Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a more than two-year high of 6.4 per cent in June.
“Restaurants always reported the highest vacancy rate in any industry and it isn’t because there aren’t Canadians around who can do it,” Stanford said.
“It’s that these jobs are so unappealing and the wages are so low and the shifts are so irregular and the job security is so poor that people will look to other industries for work.”
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