Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the basic act passed by the National Assembly in 1975 which our commission is responsible for implementing, recognizes and guarantees the same rights to all persons residing in Quebec, regardless of gender, colour, ethnic or national origin or the length of time they're on Quebec soil.
In recent years, in response to requests for investigations, consultation and legal education activities, the commission was led to take a look at the situation of two groups of temporary foreign workers: the workers from the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and those who came to Quebec under the Live-in Caregiver Program.
With respect to the seasonal agricultural workers, Quebec has had a shortage of unskilled agricultural labour for many years now. We took in 4,237 agricultural workers in 2006 and more than 5,300 in the 2007 season. The demand is constantly growing. The shortage of unskilled labour in Quebec's agricultural sector therefore does not appear to be declining.
As Class D unskilled temporary migrant workers, seasonal agricultural workers stay in Quebec for a maximum of eight months a year. They have very little or no knowledge of either of Canada's official languages. Their knowledge of our society, and of the recourse and services it offers is limited. They work in the regions, far from the major centres. They are dependent on their employer or their consulate in exercising recourse. Despite all the efforts made to inform and support these workers, they constitute a vulnerable group with regard to the exercise of rights, particularly those protected by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. That is why we offer the following thoughts and proposals.
Point one: Exercising the right of association. I'm referring to clause 3 of the Charter. When evaluating the offer of employment, one of the criteria examined by Quebec's Department of Immigration and cultural communities and Service Canada is to ensure that, and I quite: “The use of a foreign worker is not likely to undermine the settlement of a labour dispute”.
Under section 3 of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, every person enjoys freedom of association. We've recently seen unionization requests highly contested by employers, mainly from groups of workers from Mexico. The commission wants to make the committee aware that employers are trying to use labour from countries other than Mexico in order to circumvent to unionization movement mainly associated with those seasonal agricultural workers. This kind of procedure, seemingly under a neutral rule, could have the effect of introducing discriminatory exclusion based on ethnic or national origin of those workers and undermine the equality rights protected by the Quebec charter. Tolerance of this kind of attitude on the part of Quebec and Canadian employers would also contravene the provisions of the international instruments, including the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
Point two: Constitute an independent arbitration body. When a disagreement arises between a seasonal agricultural worker and his employer, the outcome of the dispute may result in the quick repatriation of the temporary migrant worker to his country of origin. Despite the major efforts made by the consulates and Human Resources and Social Development Canada to guarantee the rights of workers and employers in the event of a dispute, this situation establishes an employer-employee power relationship that is generally not seen among other Quebec workers. To ensure equal protection for the rights of seasonal agricultural workers, the commission proposes that an independent appeal structure be put in place with arbitration powers and empowered to rule on disputes between seasonal agricultural workers and their employers.
Point three: Introduce a worker representation mechanism. Under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, annual meetings are held to determine the working conditions that will prevail in the following year, such as wages, etc. They involve the various decision-makers such as Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Human Resources and Social Development Canada, employer representatives and representatives of the labour exporting countries.
To ensure equal protection of the rights of seasonal agricultural workers, the commission suggests that a worker consultation mechanism be introduced and that workers be granted a right of representation at those annual meetings.
The federal program involves provisions that may be extended in the contract of employment between the Quebec employer and the seasonal agricultural worker. That contract of employment is under Quebec's jurisdiction. Certain clauses cited in the contract are of concern for the commission from the standpoint of respect for and the exercise of rights and freedoms. I am referring, of course, to the residence obligation.
The contract states the worker's obligation to work and live in the place of work or in any other place determined by the employer and approved by the government's representative. That obligation, in the context of the Mexico and Caribbean agreement, also applies in the context of the agreement concerning workers from Guatemala.
Living on the employer's property puts workers in a situation in which, outside working hours, exercising their right to privacy under section 5 of the Quebec Charter could be subordinated to the owner-employer's right to limit access to his private property and lands. In those circumstances, the free movement of the workers or their visitors could be compromised. This limitation could constitute an obstacle to the exercise of their freedom of association and freedom of opinion, which are also protected by the Charter.
This freedom of association includes the freedom to join a union organization or any association working for everyone. The residence obligation does not apply to non-migrant Quebec workers. In that sense, it may undermine the exercise of temporary foreign workers' equality rights, which are protected under section 10 of the Quebec Charter, as a result of their ethnic or national origin.
In the case of Mexico and the Caribbean, the contract provides for the employer's obligation to provide workers with suitable accommodation free of charge. That provision results from the necessity for the employer to check the quality and safety of housing from time to time. Here too, the commission draws the committee's attention to the importance of respect for workers' privacy, but also to the inviolable nature of the residence as protected under sections 5 and 7 of the Quebec Charter. This employer-owner role thus places the farm business in an extremely delicate situation with regard to respect for the rights of housed workers.
Now I'll talk about the detainment of workers' identity papers. In February 2006, we acted on a request by the Coalition d'appui aux travailleurs et travailleuses agricoles to intervene with respect to the retaining of workers' identity papers by their employers.
To guarantee seasonal agricultural workers respect for their right to be helped and their right to privacy and to the free use of their property, the commission made a community reconciliation effort with all the players concerned by this problem. At the end of that consultation, the commission recommended that employers not detain workers' papers and that they take measures for workers to be able to safely retain their papers.
On this point, the commission recommends that this kind of provision be included in the binding contract between employer and employee.
