By Edwin c. Mercurio
SPADINA, TORONTO – On the eve of Family Day celebration Sunday, February 17, Care Workers and their advocates drafted and signed a Petition to the House of Commons amid fears that new legislation would create unfair treatment, injustice, exploitation and family breakdown after years of separation.
Care Workers for over a century, have come to Canada to provide care for families, people with disabilities and the elderly. However, they end up being exploited, abused and separated from their loved families over an extended period of time.
In the last 60 years, that work has been through temporary work programs. Care workers from Indonesia, China and the Philippines spoke about the exploitations and abuses the experienced in their workplace. Stories of working long hours without overtime pay and verbal abuse were rampant.
Liezl who came from the Philippines narrated how she was fraudulently victimized by a Filipino recruiter in 2015. Isolated and alone, she suffered in silence until the Caregivers Action Centre came to her aid.
Joie another Care Worker from Asia had to quit her job “because she couldn’t take the exploitation and abuse of her employer.”
“The two-step temporary Work Program has created a widespread and documented impacts on Care Workers’ physical and mental health and family breakdown after years of family separation.”
“This had led to well-known problems of exploitation of Care Workers- Long hours of unpaid wages and isolation in the invisible work hidden in households across the country,” according to the participants of the Family Day gathering of caregivers and advocates.
Considered as the backbone of Canada’s labour market and social support systems, Care
Workers deserve fairness and human rights and a healthy and dignified life like everyone else in Canada.
The participants are petitioning the Canadian Parliament to: Create a Federal Workers Program that allows Care Workers to come to the country without a recruiter and with their families permanently.
“While this program is being created, we request Parliament to ensure justice to migrant Care Workers by making these immediate reforms:
∙ Creating Open Work Permits program so that Caregivers are allowed to change jobs easily.
∙ Allowing Permanent Residency after 1 year of work (or 1,950 hours);
∙ Remove the requirement of one year Canadian postsecondary education;
∙ Remove the English language test prior to permanent residency;
∙ Remove caps that allow only 2,750 residency applications each year in each caregiving stream.
∙ Clear the permanent residency backlog;
∙ Family unity: spouses and children should be allowed to join Care Workers with open work and study permits of their own;
∙ Remove the secondary medical when applying for permanent residency, and
∙ Repeal Section 38 (1) of the IRPA that discriminates against people with disabilities.
By Edwin c. Mercurio
SPADINA, TORONTO – On the eve of Family Day celebration Sunday, February 17, Care Workers and their advocates drafted and signed a Petition to the House of Commons amid fears that new legislation would create unfair treatment, injustice, exploitation and family breakdown after years of separation.
Care Workers for over a century, have come to Canada to provide care for families, people with disabilities and the elderly. However, they end up being exploited, abused and separated from their loved families over an extended period of time.
In the last 60 years, that work has been through temporary work programs. Care workers from Indonesia, China and the Philippines spoke about the exploitations and abuses the experienced in their workplace. Stories of working long hours without overtime pay and verbal abuse were rampant.
Liezl who came from the Philippines narrated how she was fraudulently victimized by a Filipino recruiter in 2015. Isolated and alone, she suffered in silence until the Caregivers Action Centre came to her aid.
Joie another Care Worker from Asia had to quit her job “because she couldn’t take the exploitation and abuse of her employer.”
“The two-step temporary Work Program has created a widespread and documented impacts on Care Workers’ physical and mental health and family breakdown after years of family separation.”
“This had led to well-known problems of exploitation of Care Workers- Long hours of unpaid wages and isolation in the invisible work hidden in households across the country,” according to the participants of the Family Day gathering of caregivers and advocates.
Considered as the backbone of Canada’s labour market and social support systems, Care
Workers deserve fairness and human rights and a healthy and dignified life like everyone else in Canada.
The participants are petitioning the Canadian Parliament to: Create a Federal Workers Program that allows Care Workers to come to the country without a recruiter and with their families permanently.
“While this program is being created, we request Parliament to ensure justice to migrant Care Workers by making these immediate reforms:
∙ Creating Open Work Permits program so that Caregivers are allowed to change jobs easily.
∙ Allowing Permanent Residency after 1 year of work (or 1,950 hours);
∙ Remove the requirement of one year Canadian postsecondary education;
∙ Remove the English language test prior to permanent residency;
∙ Remove caps that allow only 2,750 residency applications each year in each caregiving stream.
∙ Clear the permanent residency backlog;
∙ Family unity: spouses and children should be allowed to join Care Workers with open work and study permits of their own;
∙ Remove the secondary medical when applying for permanent residency, and
∙ Repeal Section 38 (1) of the IRPA that discriminates against people with disabilities.