Follow-up to Report on plans and priorities

Speaking Notes for the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canadafor the Regions of Quebec Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour Workshop on the Protection of Labour Rights of Migrant Workers and Labour Market Programs Chateau Laurier Ottawa November 28, 2006

 

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I always enjoy welcoming people to our country. I was just saying to Minister Serpedes that, often because of our agenda or because our government or your government is in a minority situation, we are not able to assume our international responsibility to attend these kinds of events. And yet, whenever we meet, we grow together and we have a clearer picture of what other countries are going through and the other countries have a better understanding of what Canada is going through. It is in this context that I am pleased to be here with you for this official opening.

And I would like to thank Ms. Maria Claudia Camacho of the Organization of American States and Pierre Bouchard and his staff for organizing this workshop.

It is my pleasure to welcome fellow Labour Ministers and officials, representatives from the Organization of American States and other international organisations, our Canadian provincial and territorial colleagues, and representatives of business, labour and research organisations.  

It is an honour to be in such distinguished company today.

I am very pleased that Canada is hosting this event and I want to thank all of you for making time to join us over the next two days for this important workshop. 

I hope that while you are here you can take the opportunity to see some of Ottawa and the National Capital Region.   The city is particularly festive at this time as the holidays draw near. You have less than 30 shopping days ‘till Christmas. And in case you don’t know how beautiful the Christmas decorations are on Parliament Hill, I invite you to take a little tour. They are simply splendid. 

Your presence today underscores your commitment to the important principles and goals of the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour and the Summit of the Americas process.

This workshop on the Protection of Labour Rights of Migrant Workers and Labour Market Programs is an example of hemispheric partnership in action.    It is a follow up to commitments made last year by Heads of State at the Fourth Summit of the Americas and Labour Ministers at the Fourteenth Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour.

At the meeting of Labour Ministers in Mexico last year, Ministers reaffirmed that all migrants, regardless of their immigration status, should be accorded the full protection of human rights and the full observance of labour laws applicable to them.   This of course includes the principles and labour rights embodied in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work such as freedom of association and non-discrimination in employment.

Ministers also agreed upon an action plan to address the labour rights of migrant workers as one of the priority themes within the framework of the promotion of decent work.  I am pleased to say that this workshop is one of the activities that support this plan.

Partnership is so important and this event is an opportunity for us to come together to share information, experiences and best practices about an important topic that affects the lives of many workers and their families throughout the hemisphere.

I look forward to hearing the views and experiences of our partners as we discuss ways to improve protection for these vulnerable workers.  I am also interested in hearing from Ministers and representatives from other member states about their experiences and best practices.

Now if I may, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly share the Canadian experience with you.

Canada is committed to promoting respect for basic labour rights and we do this in a number of ways.

One way, of course, is through our participation in the Summit of the Americas process and membership in the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour and the International Labour Organization.

Another way is through International Labour Cooperation Agreements which are negotiated alongside free trade agreements.  Labour Cooperation Agreements commit signatory countries to ensure that their domestic labour laws embody and provide protections for labour rights and principles and also commits them to enforce these laws.

I will digress here and, as an aside, talk to you about productivity at work and also about the working conditions here in Canada and the practices that we are starting to increasingly promote in other countries of the world.

Let me give you the following example. In Canada, labour standards for workers can be considered good. We are quite successful in reconciling work and family life. We understand that a worker may have a child who is ill, or there may sometimes be certain situations where a worker must be away from work to look after a child or take care of a spouse or a mother or someone else who is sick. This is part of our effort to reconcile work and family life. We think that healthy workplaces benefit the employer as well because a worker who is happy in the workplace is more productive. Then everyone wins.

We are also trying to promote health and safety at work in our labour market, and this year we held a conference for all the labour ministers in Canada where it was decided that health and safety at work and healthy workplaces warrant further discussion.

And I always tell people at our meetings that health and safety are not just the employer’s business. And they’re not just the union president’s business. All workers bear a personal responsibility. When we see something dangerous, we need to care, to take the time to stop and go to the person in authority to tell them that it is dangerous, that someone may get hurt, that there is a possibility that someone may die, with all the consequences that something like that would entail for families and co-workers. We need to be aware and all of us in all countries of the world should promote this aspect of health and safety in the workplace.

And I will even go beyond the workplace and talk about the home. Who among us, when we have a light bulb to change, doesn’t climb up on a chair? We have to be aware. If something happened to us, there are people whose lives would be deeply affected. It could also have a major impact on our lives if we were seriously injured. We just need to be aware of this.

Now to return to the issue of labour standards. If we in Canada offer advantageous conditions in terms of holidays, parental leave and all kinds of benefits to our workers, and other countries do not offer these same conditions, it is obvious that our products will be more expensive. However, I don’t think that we are on the wrong track in giving our workers generous benefits. On the contrary, I think that other countries should follow Canada’s lead. We need to improve the living conditions of our workers. You also have a shared responsibility to look at what is being done here and to work toward a point where your workers receive benefits that are comparable.  Of course, the price of our products is important for maintaining our economic activity so I want everyone to be aware of this. In upcoming conferences between various countries, we need to address the issues of labour standards and quality of working life, bearing in mind the issue of the productivity of workers. 

Regarding migrant workers, part of that commitment includes providing these workers with virtually the same labour and human rights as our own workers.

Canada’s Foreign Worker Program, allows employers to hire foreign workers to meet their human resource needs when Canadian workers are not readily available.

The Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada is required by law to provide a labour market opinion to an employer who applies to hire a temporary foreign worker.

A labour market opinion is an assessment of the likely impact a temporary offer of employment will have on the Canadian labour market. 

The department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada is then responsible for issuing work permits to foreign workers.

Foreign workers must be offered wages that are within or exceed the prevailing Canadian wage for a particular occupation in the province where they are employed.

The Foreign Worker Program also requires that working conditions are the same as those for Canadian workers doing the same job

The Program has a number of provisions to ensure the well-being of foreign workers during their stay in Canada.  For example, workers sign contracts, and are registered with the Workers’ Compensation Board.

In addition, these workers receive private or public health coverage and, in some components of the Program, employers pay for partial or full airfare.

One of the programs within our Foreign Worker Program is the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, which is a successful partnership spanning over 30 years of cooperation between Canada and Mexico and 40 years of cooperation between Canada and the Caribbean countries.

Regarding unionization, foreign workers become members of the union in unionized workplaces, which means that in addition to enjoying the same wages and working conditions as Canadians or Permanent Residents, foreign workers have the added protection of the union’s collective agreement.

Also, where the foreign worker position is part of a bargaining unit, the union may be contacted to discuss the wage rate and working conditions being offered to the foreign worker.  The wage offered must be consistent with the wage structure stipulated in the collective agreement.

Finally regarding foreign workers who are live-in care givers or who work in other occupations that require less formal levels of education, Canada’s new government requires a signed contract between employer and employee that ensures fair working conditions.

Canada recognizes and values the contribution that migrant workers make to the Canadian economy.  They contribute to Canada’s growth by filling vacancies when sufficient numbers of Canadians are not available. 

I understand that there is a session tomorrow on Canada’s labour market programs that deal with the recruitment and rights of migrant workers that I hope you will find useful and informative.

I also want to say on the subject of immigrants that, as Minister of Labour, I have the opportunity to visit various parts of our country and we are working hard to promote the elimination of racism at work - one aspect of the healthy workplace that we have in Canada. Just to remind you, here in Canada, in major cities such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, nearly 50% of the population will be immigrants in five to seven years. This is a Canadian reality that is part of our mosaic and promoting the elimination of racism in the workplace is a necessity that we are fulfilling.

One of the shortcomings, or I should say, one of the things that we need to improve here in Canada – because I must say that everything isn’t perfect in our country either – is the recognition of the credentials of foreign workers and immigrants. At the moment, in Canada, we often do not recognize credentials and this worker, this immigrant who comes to Canada, is not able to use his skills to achieve his full potential. We are aware of this shortcoming and we are currently working with the provinces to reach an agreement on how to recognize the skills of immigrant workers so that they can reach their full potential in Canada. I think that we can all imagine what it would be like to go to another country where our skills and credentials were not recognized and the kind of life that would await us. So we are working on this issue in Canada and it is an issue that we should all look at in our respective countries.

Therefore, once again, I thank you for your participation in this workshop and wish you every success in your discussions in the next two days. Thank you for visiting Canada.

Again, I want to thank you for participating in this workshop and I wish you every success in your discussions over the next two days.