News & Events News Former Ontario seasonal farmworker speaks out about exploitation, files class action

Former Ontario seasonal farmworker speaks out about exploitation, files class action

January 03, 2024

CTV News speaks to Louis Century about seasonal agricultural workers’ class action

CTV News spoke to Louis Century who is representing seasonal agricultural workers in a class action alleging that several aspects of the federal government’s seasonal agricultural workers program are unconstitutional. Details of the claim can be found here and here.

The lawsuit says that Palmer was let go with no notice. Because his work permit was tied to his employer, he had to leave the country, and was not eligible to receive any employment insurance, even though premiums had been withheld from all of his pay cheques.

That system is at the root of discriminatory policies that are unconstitutional and need to be changed, said Palmer’s lawyer Louis Century.

“This brings us back to a dark chapter of our country’s history that should be relegated to the past,” Century said in an interview.

EI payouts are denied for around 50,000 temporary foreign workers who come to Canada every year to work the fields, before heading back to their homes in countries that include islands in the Caribbean, Mexico, India and the Philippines, Century said.

The lawsuit alleges that over the past 15 years, the federal government has taken in some $472 million in EI premiums from people in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program’s agricultural stream, and hasn’t paid out.

“The unjust enrichment was done on the backs of one of the most vulnerable segments of the Canadian workforce: migrant agricultural workers,” the lawsuit alleges.

The workers were made more vulnerable because their work permits tie them to one employer – a policy from the 1960s that generally didn’t affect white European workers, but still applies in the program today, the lawsuit says.

…

“Tied employment has at its root overtly racist policy from the 1960s,” Century said. “The decades have passed and we forget that history. We are challenging tied employment on the basis it was imposed as a racist policy. It’s discriminatory in its purpose,” he said.

You can read the full article here.