TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS-EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS-EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

                                                                                                         Written by – Santosh Suryawanshi

This blog is for temporary foreign workers in Canada and I believe that everyone should know all these information which are describe below. This information will help you what to expect from your employer and from where to find more useful informations.

Temporary foreign worker program allows eligible foreign workers in Canada to work for authorised period of time.

As you are temporary foreign worker, you are directly related to following government agencies. These agencies are playing very important role in your recruitment in Canada besides your employer.

Following is the brief description of three departments and there role regarding your employment

·        Service Canada- process applications for LABOUR MARKET OPINION (LMO) and ensures that all necessary requirements are met from employer. LMO is he opinion provided by HRSDC regarding IMPACT OF proposed foreign worker on Canadian labour market. A positive labour market opinion will help employee to apply for work permit, and will help employer to fill labour shortage and consequently Canadian economy to grow. Service Canada centres process LMO requests in each province.

·        Citizenship and immigration Canada (CIC) - This is the first point where foreign worker come in to contact with any of the government departments directly. CIC offices around the world are responsible for process of application for work permit to determine who is eligible to work in Canada.

·        Canada border service agency(CBSA)-This agency screen all foreign workers at the port of entry and all international airports in Canada before issuing work permit and allowed them to enter and work in Canada as per immigration and refugee protection act of Canada. CBSA officer has final word on who may enter in Canada. CBSA officers may deny entry to an individual if he thinks that person do not meet requirement of immigration and refugee protection act.

 General informations

WORK PERMIT

WORK PERMIT is the document which authorised foreign worker to work in Canada for specific period of time. There are two types of work permit –open work permit and restricted work permit.

Open work permit allowing foreign workers to work with any employer and any position.

Restricted work permit allowing foreign workers to work with only a particular employer mentioned on the work permit and can only work as a same positioned mentioned on the work permit.

Foreign workers cannot work beyond the expiry of work permit unless and until he is on implied status or applied for new work permit.

TERMINATION- employer can terminate foreign worker at any time if he thinks that employee do not meet his expectations outlined in his employment contract.in this case employer has to give proper notice or pay in lieu of notice.( as per Alberta employment law )

EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE-unemployed foreign workers can get temporary income support through employment insurance. Temporary foreign worker must meet the same eligibility as Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.                                                                                      Finding new employment- foreign workers can choose to find new employer during any time of his current employer but new employer has to get positive labour market opinion and foreign worker needs to apply for new work permits that reflects changes your employer location and job description.

REPORTING VIOLATIONS

Foreign workers can report any kind of violation at work place and its crime if employer threatens employee to send him back to his country of origin if reports violence.

EMPLOYMENT STANDARD OF ALBERTA

EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ARE MINIMUM STANDARD OF EMPLOYMENT FOR EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE AT THE WORK PLACE.

Employer has made an agreement with employee and government and has to followed all the terms and condition of your employment.

If it is mention in your contract that the employer will pay for your air tickets, health care and accommodation then employer do not have any right to collect these amount from you or deduct any amount from your pay check to cover these cost( even if you have given him written permission).

PAY PERIODS

Employer should have schedule for your pay, it can be weekly .bi-weekly or monthly pay periods. He should pay you within ten days of pay period ends. For example if employer paying your wages on monthly basis then for June 2012 pay period employer should pay you within 10 days of the pay period that is before 10 July.

DEDUCTIONS

Employment standard code allows certain deductions to be taken from employees pay such as Income Tax, Canada pension plan and employment insurance, employer must give written permission if they wants to make other deductions. There are some deductions are never allowed such as deduction for mistakes, any loss of cash or damaged of property if more than one person has access to the cash or property.

HOURS OF WORK

·        Not allowed to work for more than  12 hours in a day

·        Should have at least one day off in a week

·        30 minutes break after 5 hours of shift.

OVERTIME PAY

Overtime is all hours you work over 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week. Normally overtime paid 1.5 time of your regular pay.

GENERAL HOLIDAYS

General holidays are nine days in years as per the Alberta employment law

VACATION AND VACATION PAY

After successfully completion of one year of employment, employees are entitled to have two weeks of paid vacation.

MATERNITY AND PARENTAL LEAVE

Foreign worker can get maternity or parental leave without pay; he/she should work at least 52 consecutive weeks of employment to become eligible for this benefit.

TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT

With the proper notice, employee and employer can terminate employment. Neither employee nor employer need to give notice if termination of employment within three months. Employer need to pay all his earning within 10 days of employees termination. For employment for more than three months and less than two years proper notice period is one week.

WORKERS COMPENSATION

The worker’s compensation board (WCB) ALBERTA can provide you assistance if employee gets injured at work.

IMMIGRATE TO ALBERTA

IMMIGRATE TO ALBERTA INFORMATION SERVICES can provide you most important information and guide through experts on following topics

·        Alberta immigrant nominee program (AINP)

·        Eligibility criteria for employer and employee under AINP.

·        Steps and process for applying for AINP programs

·        Labour market opinion

·        Work permits

·        International qualifications assessment services

·        Recognition of foreign qualification and assessment of credentials.

·        General information on temporary and permanent immigration.

Alberta immigration nominee program (AINP) gives opportunities to TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS to become permanent resident of Canada.

Following are the different streams and categories of Alberta immigration nominee program.

·        Employer driven stream – This program is for candidates who are in skilled and selected semi-skilled occupations and have permanent full time job offer in Alberta.

·        Strategic recruitment stream-this program is for the candidates who are in high demand occupation

·        Family stream-This program is for candidate who has close family relative in Alberta who assists them to settle in Alberta.

If you met all criteria for AINP,then you need apply with all require documents . make sure that you include all your required documents along with your application ,or else application will return back to you.

If your application meets all your eligibility criteria ,then your application will approved as a alberta nominee . Alberta government will send you detail package and will instruct you about next step to be taken. As per their instructions applicant has to submit his applications to CIC (citizenship and immigration Canada) office for further processing.

CIC( citizenship and immigration Canada) will then conduct health, security ,and criminal ckeck if you pass their criteria then you will received your permanent resident visa.

                                                                                                            Blog written by – Santosh Suryawanshi