Canada stops restaurants from hiring temporary foreign workers

Canada has temporarily stopped hiring foreign workers, including Filipinos, in its fast food sector due to allegations of abuse on its Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

As a consequence of the moratorium on TFWP, several jobs in the the Canadian fastfood service industry are no longer qualified for Labor Market Opinion (LMO), said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz in a statement Wednesday.

“LMO is a basic document required of employers to certify a vacancy in employment position that a local worker has not filled up with an expression of intent to employ a named foreign worker,” she said.

Based on the records of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Toronto, 200 out of 660 employment contracts processed from May to December 2013 were for temporary overseas Filipino workers in the fastfood industry.

Among the affected jobs are:

• food counter attendants;
• kitchen helpers and related occupations;
• restaurant and food service managers;
• food service supervisors;
• food and beverage servers;
• cashiers;
• chefs;
• cooks;
• bakers;
• sales, marketing and advertising managers;
• retail trade manager;
• accommodation service managers and other services managers;
• retail trade supervisors;
• executive housekeepers;
• dry cleaning and laundry supervisors, and other services supervisors;
• technical sales specialists on wholesale trade;
• butchers, meat cutters, and fishmongers (retail and wholesale);
• sales representatives in wholesale trade (non-technical);
• retail salespersons and sales clerks;
• maîtres d’hotel and hosts/hostesses;
• bartenders and other personal service occupations;
• grocery clerks and store shelf stockers, and other elemental sales occupations;
• security guards and related occupations;
• light duty cleaners;
• specialized cleaners;
• janitors, caretakers, and building superintendents;
• dry cleaning and laundry occupations; and
• ironing, pressing, and finishing occupations and other elemental service occupations.

In a report to Baldoz, Labor Attaché to Toronto Leonida Romulo said the moratorium was instituted in response to serious allegations of the abuse on the TFWP by some employers in the fastfood industry.

“No new applications will be received for occupations in the list and LMO applications that have yet to receive decision will be cancelled,” Romulo said in her report.

Canada’s Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney said the move was part of a program to give priority for Canadian citizens. However, the move was met with negative reactions from different groups affected by the decision.

Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said that the government decision was a “trial and conviction by media examples.”

If the moratorium lasts for months, many businesses will be closed, Kelly warned, especially in small communities, resort communities, and in resort areas. —KBK, GMA News