By Edwin C. Mercurio
TORONTO – Four migrant workers from the Philippines who were duped into working in Canada with promises of good wages as mushroom pickers but were instead exploited and paid slave wages have raised the level of their fight for justice by filing a legal suit against the recruitment agency Link4Staff Inc. and Sharon Mushroom Farm.
Speaking during the forum held at the Migrants Resource Centre, inside the St. George the Martyr Church, 30 Stephanie St. Toronto, migrant workers Maila Ceguerra, Lourdes Dela Pena, Jesse Veneranda, and Marisol Bobadilla spoke about their ordeal.
The group filed a suit against the recruitment agency and Sharon Mushroom Farm for the exploitation and injustice they suffered while working with no benefits, unbelievably low wages, housed in in cramped bedrooms littered with garbage, crawling bed bugs and unsanitary living quarters they were forced to live in along with other migrant workers from other countries.
On account of their complaints and the support by the Migrants Resource Centre, Lily Miranda of A&L Hammer and Sharon Mushroom Farm owner, Laxman Marsonia, have been charged by the Canada Border Services Agency of Human Trafficking and Misrepresentation-related Offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Recently, the Ontario Court ordered A & L Hammer to pay back illegally charged recruiter fees to the migrant workers. Lily Miranda, however, has not been convicted.
Leny Simbre – Migrants Ontario Chairperson, called the attention of both the Federal Government of Canada and the Provincial Government of Ontario in a petition to protect
Migrant workers from unscrupulous recruitment agencies.
In the petition brought forward by the migrant workers, forum participants and Migrante Ontario, the group urged the government to:
- Implement a policy that will mandate all recruitment agencies to obtain a license from the Employment Standards.
- Require all employers wanting to recruit foreign workers in Ontario to be registered with Employment Standards.
- Demand action from both the Province of Ontario and Federal Government of Canada to provide Permanent Residency on landing for all migrant workers coming to work in Canada.
In addition, the group called on the Government of Ontario to license recruiters, register employers and hold them jointly and financially liable for fees and for the Federal Government to ensure permanent residency status on arrival.
Migrante Ontario also deplored the continued labour exploitation and trafficking of migrant workers in Ontario as a result of non-enforceable provincial laws and the temporary immigration programs.
“Unlike Manitoba, Alberta, Nova Scotia or British Columbia, Ontario does not have a recruiter registry and is not aware of migrant workers’ employers. Employer specific work permits, and temporary immigration streams create precarious working conditions, limiting workers’ ability to assert their rights, thus allowing labour exploitation,” says Simbre of Migrante Ontario.