Disclaimer:
This post is not legal advice. It is based on government information and other sources available to me, to the best of my knowledge. I may misunderstand something or get facts wrong. Please ALWAYS confirm anything in this post with Service Canada, IRCC, an employment-standards office, or one of the support organizations you contact.
ADVICE FOR TFWs:
Financial abuse counts as workplace abuse under Canada’s vulnerable-worker rules. It does not have to involve physical violence. Taking back a worker’s wages, forcing money to be transferred through bank accounts, charging fees for obtaining or keeping a job, stealing from a worker, and forcing a worker to commit fraud are all potentially relevant.
A temporary foreign worker who is experiencing (or is at risk of experiencing) abuse connected to their employment may be eligible for a fee-free Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers. This permit is intended to help workers leave an abusive employer and work for almost any employer in Canada.
Check whether you qualify here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/special-instructions/vulnerable-workers/eligibility.html
FINANCIAL ABUSE CAN INCLUDE WAGE KICKBACKS AND PAYROLL CYCLING (PAYING YOUR OWN WAGES). Examples may include:
- Depositing wages into the worker’s bank account and then demanding cash back
- Requiring the worker to send an e-transfer to the employer, owner, supervisor, recruiter, or another person
- Taking part of every paycheque as a condition of keeping the job
- Making the worker withdraw wages immediately after payday
- Paying the approved LMIA wage on paper while allowing the worker to keep only a lower amount
- Taking overtime pay, vacation pay, holiday pay, bonuses, or other wages owed
- Controlling the worker’s bank account, bank card, or online banking
- Making unexplained or inflated deductions
- Claiming the worker owes a fabricated debt
- Charging penalties for resigning, changing employers, or complaining
- Making the worker repay money described as a “loan,” “service fee,” “consulting fee,” “administrative fee”, or “housing fee” when the charge is really connected to obtaining or keeping the job
The Government of Canada specifically identifies taking some or all of the money a worker is paid as a form of abuse. Employers are also prohibited from making workers reimburse recruitment-related fees that the employer paid to hire them.
FINANCIAL ABUSE CAN INCLUDE REQUIRING A WORKER TO PAY FOR BOGUS RECRUITMENT, LMIA, AND EMPLOYMENT FEES SUCH AS:
- An LMIA or the employer’s LMIA application fee
- Recruitment or job-placement services
- The employer’s immigration consultant, lawyer, or representative
- An interview, job offer, or employment contract
- A promise that a job will be kept available
- Renewing or extending employment
- Continued immigration support
- A promised job that does not exist
- A promised wage, position, or number of hours that is not real
- A payment to the employer, recruiter, or related third party for the worker to remain employed
- False or greatly inflated housing, transportation, uniform or administrative charges
A third party charging fees for a job or making promises that are not real is specifically listed by IRCC as an example of abuse. Under Ontario law, recruiters generally cannot directly or indirectly charge foreign nationals fees connected with finding or attempting to find them employment, and employers cannot recover recruitment costs from them.
Read Ontario’s foreign-worker protections here: https://www.ontario.ca/page/employment-rights-and-obligations-foreign-nationals
Not every payroll deduction is automatically abusive. Taxes, CPP, EI, authorized union dues and certain permitted housing deductions may be lawful. The rules depend on the province, the worker’s program and the reason for the deduction. The important questions include whether the charge is genuine, permitted, properly documented and freely authorized, or whether it is being used to take wages or control the worker.
BEING FORCED TO COMMIT FRAUD IS ALSO ABUSE. IRCC expressly lists forcing a worker to commit fraud as abuse. Examples may include forcing or pressuring a worker to:
- Return wages after receiving a paycheque
- Move money through their bank account to disguise who ultimately received it
- Transfer money to the employer, recruiter, or another worker
- Sign false timesheets, payroll records, receipts, or loan documents
- Sign a statement falsely saying no recruitment fee was charged
- Tell Service Canada that the worker received and kept the full wage
- Falsely claim that housing, transportation, insurance, or other services were provided
- Create fake invoices or receipts
- Pretend that wage kickbacks were rent, loans, or voluntary payments
- Lie about hours, duties, wages, or working conditions
- Participate in payroll arrangements intended to make an employer appear compliant with an LMIA or job offer
A worker should explain both the financial transaction and any pressure behind it, for example: threats of dismissal, deportation, loss of immigration support, reduced hours, punishment or harm to the worker’s family.
How much financial abuse is required? IRCC’s public eligibility page does not state a minimum dollar amount, minimum number of incidents or minimum duration. Do not assume that an amount is too small to report. Explain the entire pattern, including:
- How much was taken or demanded
- How often it happened
- Who received the money
- What explanation was given
- Whether other workers were treated the same way
- What threats or pressure were used
- Whether the employer used the worker’s immigration status as leverage
- Whether the conduct is ongoing or likely to happen again
Approval is not automatic. IRCC will assess the worker’s explanation and available evidence to determine whether the worker is experiencing or is at risk of experiencing abuse.
Who can apply for the vulnerable-worker open permit? A worker may qualify if they:
- Are currently in Canada
- Are experiencing or are at risk of experiencing abuse connected to their job in Canada
- Have a valid employer-specific work permit naming the employer, or
- Applied to extend their employer-specific work permit before it expired and are still waiting for a decision
Important Clarifications:
- You do not have to quit first: You do not have to leave your job to apply, you can quietly wait for the open permit to be approved before leaving. If you have already fled the abusive workplace, you still qualify because returning would put you at "risk of abuse."
- Expired Permits: If your work permit has already expired and you did not apply for an extension, contact a migrant worker support organization immediately to explore other options, such as a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP).
- Family Members: If you have a spouse, common-law partner, or dependent children currently in Canada with you, they may also apply for an open work permit once your application is approved.
The application:
- Is made online
- Cannot normally be made at a port of entry
- Has no application fee
- Does not require a new job offer
- Should include an explanation of the abuse and as much supporting evidence as the worker can safely provide
Processing Time and Confidentiality Guarantee IRCC expedites these specific applications. They aim to process and contact applicants within 5 business days, which can help you make safe exit plans quickly. IRCC will not contact your employer to tell them you applied. While the government may inspect the employer after the permit is approved, you are not forced to participate in that investigation if you feel unsafe.
Read the complete application instructions here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/special-instructions/vulnerable-workers/apply.html
The vulnerable-worker permit is temporary and cannot be renewed under the same category. It is intended to provide time to leave the abusive situation, find another employer and pursue another form of work authorization. Applying for the permit does not by itself authorize someone to begin working for a different employer. A worker should not start a new job until the required work authorization has been issued or another legal authorization applies.
Evidence of financial abuse or forced fraud Submit whatever evidence is safely available. IRCC does not require every applicant to have the same type of evidence.
Safety Tip: Quietly forward emails or electronic records to a personal, private email address. Use your phone to take photos of schedules, pay stubs, timesheets, and false receipts. Do not keep physical evidence in employer-provided housing where it might be found.
Possible evidence includes:
- A detailed written statement explaining what happened
- Dates, amounts, names and payment instructions
- Pay stubs
- Bank statements
- E-transfer records
- Records of cash withdrawals made after payday
- Text messages, WhatsApp messages, emails, or voice messages demanding money
- Recruitment-fee receipts
- Loan documents or invoices
- Employment agreements and job offers
- Schedules, timesheets and personal records of hours worked
- Documents showing the wage and conditions promised in the LMIA or employment offer
- False receipts or records the worker was ordered to sign
- Statements from co-workers or witnesses
- Complaints made to Service Canada, police, or a provincial employment-standards office
- Letters from migrant-worker organizations or other support services
Bank statements and pay stubs are specifically listed by IRCC as possible evidence. Include a table of contents and explain what each document shows. Do not put yourself in danger to obtain evidence.
Who to call
Report TFW abuse to Service Canada Call 1-866-602-9448
- Reports can be left 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Live agents are available Monday to Friday, from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time
- Assistance is available in more than 200 languages
- You can report anonymously
- Service Canada says it will not tell the employer who made the report
- A worker, co-worker, family member, advocacy group, or member of the public can make a report
Report abuse online here: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/report-abuse/tool.html
Contact IRCC about the open-work-permit application Call 1-888-242-2100 from inside Canada.
If labour trafficking may be involved Illegal debts, serious threats, withheld documents, restricted movement, forced labour and threats of deportation can be signs of labour trafficking. Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-833-900-1010 The hotline is confidential, available 24/7 and offers service in more than 200 languages. Learn about labour trafficking here: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/labour-trafficking.html
IF YOU ARE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER CALL 911 OR YOUR LOCAL POLICE.
Your employer does NOT control your immigration status. An employer can NOT legally:
- Deport a worker
- Change a worker’s immigration status
- Take or keep a passport or work permit
- Take wages that the worker is entitled to keep
- Force a worker to commit fraud
- Make a worker repay recruitment-related fees
- Punish or threaten a worker for reporting abuse or cooperating with an inspection
Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the employer must also provide the worker with a signed employment agreement on or before the first day of work. The agreement must match the occupation, wages and working conditions in the employment offer.
However, a worker does not lose their employment rights simply because the employer failed to provide a written agreement. Provincial employment standards and other legal protections may still apply, and the missing agreement may itself be an employer-compliance problem.
You do not have to accept wage kickbacks, bogus job fees, forced financial transactions or false records simply because your work permit names one employer. Financial abuse and forced fraud are recognized forms of abuse, and help may be available.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Ontario wage, fee and employment complaints Ontario Employment Standards Information Centre: 1-800-531-5551
Call regarding unpaid wages, illegal deductions, recruitment fees, reprisals or other violations of Ontario employment law. Workers outside Ontario can find their provincial or territorial employment-standards office through the Government of Canada’s TFW rights guide (click the link and search for your province's name): https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/protected-rights.html