As per a report, Ottawa has made some important changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR)–modifications which slap tougher terms on the national recruiters/job-providers who employ the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). According to a concerned person, the said amendments to the TFWP show the nation’s continuing obligation to safeguard weak overseas employees from the dangers of unchecked mistreatment and sickening abuse.
Made public on December 28–and made effective from December 31, 2013–the latest modifications give power to the ESDC to carry-out checks of recruiters of the overseas manpower, to check that they are obeying the IRPR conditions. Such checks could comprise onsite visits, minus warrants, besides consensual interviews with the job-providers/firms.
Allegedly, inspections may presently be carried-out from the first day of employment of the provisional foreign worker. And instead of depending on a recruiter/company to request a fresh labour market opinion (LMO), the federal administration may confirm the job-provider’s compliance with the terms of a preceding LMO.
The ESDC makes available the LMOs to firms which apply for the TFWP. An LMO document assesses the impact which an impermanent overseas worker could have on the country’s labour market. At the present, the ESDC reserves the authority to cancel the LMOs and disallow the LMO submissions.
The concerned person added that the federal regime will also issue Ministerial Instructions which specify the considerations under which to cancel LMOs or decline to process LMO petitions, to annul work visas or defer the processing of work visas. He stressed that, in case fresh information becomes available showing the recruiter furnished wrong or false details on the LMO submission; the federal administration can defer or repeal the LMO & cancel the work visa.
It is asserted that the changes also necessitate recruiters/job-providers to keep hold of every paper concerning obedience of the conditions of the IRPR, for a period of six years, beginning from the first day of an overseas employee’s employment. Recruiters/job-providers should make practical efforts to employ or offer training to the national permanent residents and/or citizens, and to keep their places of work 100% free of mistreatment.
Recruiters/job-providers may be blacklisted
Recruiters/firms–which do not fulfill the IRPR standards–may presently be stripped of their eligibility to sign-up overseas labor force for two years even while they could be put on a public blacklist, and their previously issued LMOs may be cancelled. However, such recruiters/job-providers will be given the chance to take remedial actions, prior to such punitive commands are made.
Allegedly, another target of the improvements is to make certain that the nationals continue to be the Number One priority in the matters of employment.
