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Author Topic: Worker exploitation with your sushi?
Just-Us
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 15275

posted 12 June 2008 06:53 AM      Profile for Just-Us     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
My wife recently immigrated from Japan and, desiring a better standard of living than is obtainable through my pittance, decided to look for a part time job. I have found some of the offers she's received to be not just laughable, but downright angering.

This morning she told me about her offer from a Japanese restaurant in downtown Toronto: $7.00/hr, which appears to be 60 cents less than the liquor minimum wage as outlined by the Ontario government, paid in cash. During "training," which lasts one month, the restaurant will KEEP any tips. After training, the tips will still be looked after by the owners, but my wife will be included in the haul: The current average for tips, they told her in an email, is "over $1.00 per hour."

She was surprised to see me sour at this offer, since it was relatively generous compared to what she's seen and heard before. To wit:

Her friend, a Japanese visiting on a student visa, was "hired" by a sandwich shop near Bloor & Yonge. I say "hired" because for the first week of "training" she worked for FREE. I don't know the wage details after that, but my money's on less than minimum wage.

My wife, meanwhile, applied last month for a position photographing Japanese tourists visiting Niagara Falls. The company conducts most of its business in Japanese, organizing bus trips to the Falls. My wife was to drive to the falls, take scenic shots of the tourists, and sell them the pictures. She was to have use of a company car and camera, and get paid $10.00/hr. A little low for all that responsibility, but good for now. Until she mentioned that for the first two weeks of "training" for this hectic, long-hour job, she was expected to work for NO PAY.

All of this business is conducted in Japanese, on local Japanese job boards and newspapers. Who would doubt that other language minorities find jobs the same way? Why hire someone with enough knowledge to recognize exploitation when you can find short-stay or low-English-skills people in need of a few bucks that will discount themselves like a loaf of day-old bread?

Have I been leading too sheltered an existence? Is this standard practice for many low-wage jobs? Can companies legally insist on a free-labour training period? Can they keep tips? Can they pay a server in cash, foregoing all that EI & CPP nonsense? Can someone with a work-holiday or student visa, generally ignorant of Canadian job laws and customs, be hired for less than the government minimum?

If the answers are Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes; and if I were a restaurant owner with no shame and no problem nickel and diming my staff to death, I'd say, "It's time to place a want-ad on a Japanese job board."
Employment Standards Fact Sheet


From: Toronto | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged
KenS
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1174

posted 12 June 2008 07:14 AM      Profile for KenS     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Employers get away with murder circumventing labour laws and regulations. As amplified as it is with immigrants, it is absolutely rife with non-immigrants.

It is rife in MANY sectors of the economy that most Canadians like yourself have no idea of. Allow me to introduce you to the world of 'sub-contracting'.

If you guys were to move to BC or Alberta- and especially if you wanted to live in Banff or Jasper- a Japanese speaker must command a premium too high for that kind of bullshit you referr to.


From: Minasville, NS | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 12 June 2008 01:12 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's very upsetting the way immigrants are often exploited by unscrupulous employers. The same thing happened to an Iranian friend of mine. When he came to Canada, he landed in Toronto and tried to get a job. He got a job at a Persian restaurant that paid him $3 an hour, under the table (I'd love to name the restaurant, which I never, ever go to now, but I can't prove it and it's hearsay - but I believe him). He didn't know the rules nor what money was worth here and thought that it was okay, until after a couple of months when he realized he couldn't make ends meet. He soon learned what minimum wage was, and quit the job.

And I don't want anyone to think that it's just immigrant restaurant and shop owners that pull this kind of scam on immigrant workers. I worked for a bakery where the (white, Canadian-born) owner would exploit the children of the Vietnamese immigrants who worked there, by paying their parents well below minimum wage under the table for the kids' labour. Why? Because he could get away with it. The Vietnamese workers' language skills were rough and it would have been difficult for them to find work elsewhere that would have been any better, so they made the best of it and went along to get along.

Immigrant worker centres have long decried this kind of exploitation of newcomers. I don't know what the practical solution is, though. You can write all the laws in the world, but if employers don't follow them and the people they exploit either don't know the laws or are in a position of no power, then it's hard to not only find out about these abuses but also to stop them.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
triciamarie
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 12970

posted 12 June 2008 04:10 PM      Profile for triciamarie     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
An Iraqi friend of mine -- a mechanical engineer -- couldn't get anyone to hire him, not only in his profession but in any capacity with his bad back, so about six months ago he went to work in a convenience store, working nights, when there is less stocking of shelves to be done. He has been held up twice. The second time he was pistol-whipped and the gun put to his head. Last time I saw him he was happy because the police had caught a guy sitting across the street about to rob the store, with him on duty, again. (He doesn't know if it's the same guy because the police can't be bothered to call him back.)

He works five nights a week, 11 - 8 and has been getting $250 a week, cash. After the second hold-up they increased him to $7.

He's thinking of going back to Iraq for a while, make a fortune working as an interpreter for the Americans and take his chances on getting killed there, which are pretty good might happen.


From: gwelf | Registered: Jul 2006  |  IP: Logged
munroe
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14227

posted 12 June 2008 04:39 PM      Profile for munroe     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
You guys need to get with the programme! All is well unless someone complains. The Campbell Liberals in BC solved the problem early by simply adjusting the system.

In BC if you have an employment standards complaint you go to the Ministry and get an instruction package (manual) in english of course. Say you aren't paid overtime for your 80 hour weeks, you just fill out the first form and ask for it. You make a copy and give the form to the boss. If he or she doesn't pay up (or fire you), then you have the "right" to file a complaint and your claim will be considered. Mind you, the claims of the other 10 or 11 workers (also working straight time and STILL working) will not.

If you win you may get some or maybe all of the overtime and the meagre severance that may or may not be owed.

Since Campbell introduced the new self-policing system, complaints have dropped dramatically.

Obviously it works.

PS - If you think maybe you could improve the situation by joining a union, Campbell helped there too. First, the boss is now free to pressure everyone not to do so and can make all the changes need to defeat the effort if it can concoct a good "business reason" for doing so (remaining "union free" is considered to be a good business reason).

PSS - The changes in Saskatchewan are modeled on B.C.'s success story.

But for the living and breathing thing, being an Iraqi translator may look good.

[ 12 June 2008: Message edited by: munroe ]


From: Port Moody, B.C. | Registered: Jun 2007  |  IP: Logged
scooter
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5548

posted 15 June 2008 07:49 PM      Profile for scooter     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
He didn't know the rules nor what money was worth here and thought that it was okay, until after a couple of months when he realized he couldn't make ends meet. He soon learned what minimum wage was, and quit the job.

And did he file a complaint with the appropriate government agency?

From: High River | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged

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