McDonald's paying foreign workers more than Canadians

[Anonymous]

I saw this on the morning news and was quite surprised..



McDonald's franchisees mostly in Western Canada are paying foreign workers more than Canadians..



The article is long, so I will read it after work..



Have a nice day everyone.

 :)



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mcdonald-s-foreign-worker-practices-face-growing-investigation-1.2607365">http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.2607365">http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mcdonald-s-foreign-worker-practices-face-growing-investigation-1.2607365

The federal investigation into McDonald's use of temporary foreign workers has widened to several other locations, as more local workers speak out about feeling sidelined and shortchanged.



"I feel it's definitely discrimination against Canadians," said Chris Eldridge, from Lethbridge, Alta.



Eldridge just quit his managerial job for six McDonald's locations in Alberta, because he said he could no longer stomach denying local employees much-needed shifts to accommodate temporary foreign workers.



"Honestly, some days I wonder, is this still Canada? Everyone is supposed to have equal rights



Eldridge was a manager who did the worker scheduling for McDonald's franchisee Dan Brown. He's also upset about differences in pay. Many foreign workers started at $10.80 an hour, he said, while local employees doing the same job made less.



Federal rules stipulate that foreign workers coming in to Lethbridge as food service attendants must make at least the "prevailing wage" of $10.41. However, immigration lawyers told Go Public local employees doing the same job are not supposed to be paid less or lose hours as a result.



"I was instructed to ensure, based on the contracts the foreign workers had signed, that they would be guaranteed full-time hours, no questions asked," said Eldridge, who said that meant he had to shortchange Canadian employees.



Federal investigators dispatched





As a result of our inquiries, Employment Minister Jason Kenney's office said the "urgent investigation" launched last week after Go Public's story about a Victoria McDonald's franchise has been expanded.



"Minister Kenney has expressed strong concerns about the potential abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to the head of human resources at McDonalds' head office," said a spokesperson from the minister's office.



The minister's office said franchises in Lethbridge and Parksville B.C. have been barred from applying to bring in any more temporary foreign workers, pending the outcome of the investigation.



"As soon as we became aware of these allegations, officials were directed to begin an urgent and immediate investigation. These cases are being investigated as urgently as the previous case in Victoria, including inspectors being dispatched," said Kenney's office.



The minister's office said those additional franchisees have not been put on the department's blacklist, however, only because they don't have any current applications in the works.



"I was told [foreign workers] have better flexibility, they're willing to do whatever they're asked," said Eldridge. "Because they were these amazing workers, they were given these [better] shifts."



Brown owns six Alberta fast food outlets in Lethbridge, one in Pincher Creek and one in Taber. He confirmed he has 90 temporary foreign workers on staff.



He denies telling Eldridge to cut local employee hours. However, Eldridge said his instructions came from other managers, who said they were speaking on Brown's behalf. He said some local employees didn't get enough work to pay their rent.



"I was constantly having that guilt on my chest, because I could be the reason someone might lose the place that they're living in."



Brown confirmed part-time local staffers make $9.95 per hour – less than the foreign workers — but he said full-timers are paid equally. He said full-time hours are now split evenly between local and foreign staff.



"I provide people with an opportunity to live and work in Canada and contribute to the Canadian economy," Brown said. "Temporary foreign workers in my restaurants are very grateful for the opportunity."



Foreigners live in 'compound'



Eldridge said the foreign workers were recruited from Belize, the Philippines and Jamaica by Actyl Group, an international recruiter used by McDonald's Canada. It charges employers up to $2,000 per worker it recruits.



Actyl's job website is designed to attract foreign workers. It lists numerous ads for full-time jobs at McDonald's. They all suggest Canadians can apply, but only for part-time work.



"The selected candidate is expected to work 40 hours per week with the possibility of overtime. Part-time applications from Canadians or people in Canada with their PR are also accepted," the ads read.



Many of the open jobs currently on the Actyl site are not advertised on popular Canadian jobs sites like Kijiji. Linda West of Actyl said that is because those McDonald's locations already have government approvals to hire foreign workers.



"We never give up on trying to recruit Canadians," West said. "We have had adverts up for over a year without Canadians applying."



Eldridge said Brown houses the foreign workers in an apartment building with six to eight employees per unit, and deducts approximately $400 a month from each worker's pay for rent.





"It's a big apartment complex, but everyone calls it 'the compound.' It's so enclosed and overpacked in a lot of ways," said Eldridge.





Go Public asked Brown if he is also the foreign workers' landlord, but he didn't answer.





Emily Bryce, who still works at one of his outlets, said she believes the foreigners are exploited because many are professionals by trade and leave their children behind for a chance to live in Canada.





"My Canada isn't one where you force people to choose between their job and their family. They should be taking full families in and giving them citizenship," said Bryce.





The whole [foreign worker] program is unjust and it has too many loopholes in it for franchisee owners to exploit them."



Locals feel marginalized nationwide



Go Public received complaints from McDonald's workers in other B.C. and Alberta locations, too, as well as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.



"The whole time I have worked at the local McDonald's there has been nothing but favouritism towards the Filipinos," said a worker in New Brunswick. "Any Canadian that works here feels that if they were to complain it would be viewed racist, but it is a serious problem."



"I've seen countless [local] people turned down [for] the chance to even submit resumes, or have the chance of their resumes to be looked at, before they enter the trash," said an employee from a B.C. location.





An insider from Edmonton wrote, "Being a former general manager for McDonald's, I can tell you on the franchisee side of the business this is the preferred hiring method...There are numerous other franchisees in the system that will exclude hiring Canadians first."





Seventy five percent of McDonald's outlets in Canada are owned by franchisees.





A former assistant manager from a McDonald's in Parksville, B.C., who was there for 24 years, said she was effectively pushed out the door in favour of workers from the Philippines.





"All those of us who have left, you know, for sure have all felt pushed out," said 52-year-old Christina Morrow. "It was reverse discrimination."





Her former boss, Jamie Johannesen, owns four area franchises. Morrow said he brought in 20 foreign workers when he bought the Parksville location three years ago.



Filipinos 'better workers'





"He said they were better workers...so I would have to cut [local employee] hours to give these people 40 hours."



Morrow said her work was criticized for the first time in two decades and her pay was cut from $18 to $11 an hour.



"It felt like a knife in my heart, she said. I'd been there 24 years...a lifetime to devote your flesh and blood to a position like that but obviously I wasn't wanted anymore."



She quit a year ago, because she says she couldn't handle the pay cut.



I would say the foreign workers were definitely favoured in almost every aspect," said 19-year-old Brayden Chamberlain, who worked at the same McDonald's for three years.





He quit last spring, because he said his hours had been cut so much it wasn't worth working there anymore. He said some of the Filipinos had management roles, which made local workers feel marginalized.





"They treat you a lot differently.  You're the minority of the company and you almost end up

 feeling exiled, which is why I ended up quitting," he said. "If you are not Filipino, you have no place there."



The owner, Johannesen, did not respond to requests for comment.



Go Public asked McDonald's Canada for comment on this story, but the company said it needed more time to investigate.



Corporate McDonald's responding



"We have begun the process of undertaking a comprehensive review, working closely with external advisers, of all our restaurants – franchised and corporate-owned – across Canada that employ temporary foreign workers," said McDonald's Canada spokesperson Richard Ellis.



As you will appreciate, it will take a significant amount of time to do this right."



The company said earlier it has 3,400 temporary foreign workers in its 1,400 locations and it abides by all the rules of the federal program.  



NDP employment critic Jinny Sims is calling for an emergency debate in Parliament and said the government should now suspend all temporary foreign worker permits for fast-food outlets.



"I believe this is an emergency," said Sims. "This is creating unnecessary tension and the minister cannot wash his hands of this...his government is allowing this program to be abused."

[Anonymous]

Hmm, my thoughts on this are mixed. On the one hand, I can understand franchisees preference for foreign workers. These kind of jobs have high turnover and attract the kind of Canadians with very little work experience. The foreign workers tend to be older, are required to be reliable if they want to keep their visas and cannot just quit to find another job. That's a load off any franchisee's mind.



On the other hand, I don't like the blatant discrimination shown to Canadians in terms of hours and wages. Then there's the gaming of the temporary foreign worker visa program by these franchise owners. They are making life difficult for employers who genuinely can't find suitable workers in Canada.

[Anonymous]

The Temporary Worker Visa Program is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Willing Canadians not even granted interviews while foreign workers are hired to fill an artificial need? There is so much abuse of the program and it keeps wages artificially low by increasing the pool of labour at Canadians expense. Besides the foreign labour brokers, the only other beneficiary of the program is Air Canada which keeps jets full flying workers to and from Canada.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there have been abuses of the program, but you can't just kill it entirely. A lot of fast food joints/hotels in Alberta and Saskatchewan cannot compete with the offers in a buoyant job market. Workers from elsewhere in Canada are not coming here to make beds at the Motel 6 either. The only alternatives are foreign labour or a helluva lot more babies....Renee, are your siblings as fertile as you? ;)

[Anonymous]

After reading the article, I see that McDonald's stores nationwide are using guest workers..



If as some managers claim owners are deliberately not hiring citizens isn't that employment discrimination?



If some owners are paying people from foreign countries a higher wages than citizens, isn't that discrimination based on country of origin?



Why aren't the owners who break employment laws being fined?

[Obvious Li]

Hmm, my thoughts on this are mixed. On the one hand, I can understand franchisees preference for foreign workers. These kind of jobs have high turnover and attract the kind of Canadians with very little work experience. The foreign workers tend to be older, are required to be reliable if they want to keep their visas and cannot just quit to find another job. That's a load off any franchisee's mind.



On the other hand, I don't like the blatant discrimination shown to Canadians in terms of hours and wages. Then there's the gaming of the temporary foreign worker visa program by these franchise owners. They are making life difficult for employers who genuinely can't find suitable workers in Canada.

what the princess ^^ says......being a frequent visitor to macdonalds....(i meet all my oldster buddies there for coffee) i can attest to the complete uselessness of any white teenage employee i have ever seen there...the flips on the other hand are excellent workers, friendly, pleasant and courteous....who/whom (for RW) would you hire..????

[Anonymous]

what the princess ^^ says......being a frequent visitor to macdonalds....(i meet all my oldster buddies there for coffee) i can attest to the complete uselessness of any white teenage employee i have ever seen there...the flips on the other hand are excellent workers, friendly, pleasant and courteous....who/whom (for RW) would you hire..????

I'm curious too if RW was a franchisee, which pool of labour she would hire? Canadians or foreign workers?

[Romero]

What happened to the good old days when companies just wanted to bring down wages for foreign temp workers and then Canadians?

[Obvious Li]

What happened to the good old days when companies just wanted to bring down wages for both foreign temp workers and then Canadians?

something happened that they never experienced before...they hired these foreigners and they work like hell, are all the things i stated above and because of them the company makes more money so they can pay them more....imagine that.....it's been so long since someone in this country put in an honest days work most employers today have never seen it...they are blown away when those brown folks show them how it is done.....they make canadian workers an embarrassment................... another reason why i loved living in Asia......

[Anonymous]

What happened to the good old days when companies just wanted to bring down wages for foreign temp workers and then Canadians?

I guess they decided it makes more cents to lower wages for adolescent Canadians and give higher wages and more hours to Filipinos.



Just curious, is every single Mickey D's/Timmy's/hotel in Vancouver majority foreign visa holders? It is in Edmonton.

[Romero]

Just curious, is every single Mickey D's/Timmy's/hotel in Vancouver majority foreign visa holders? It is in Edmonton.

I don't really know! I can't usually tell if they're foreign, Canadian or new Canadian.



I do know that a lot of real foreign temp workers work in the farms around the Lower Mainland. Where I live downtown, a lot of foreign workers from Asia, Europe, Central and South America are working in the service industries. Many of them are students or looking for a new life.



New Canadians are awesome. We've all been there.



I just worry about how new Canadians and Canadians are exploited. That doesn't do any good for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Just curious, is every single Mickey D's/Timmy's/hotel in Vancouver majority foreign visa holders? It is in Edmonton.

I don't really know! I can't usually tell if they're foreign, Canadian or new Canadian.



I do know that a lot of real foreign temp workers work in the farms around the Lower Mainland. Where I live downtown, a lot of foreign workers from Asia, Europe, Central and South America are working in the service industries. Many of them are students or looking for a new life.



New Canadians are awesome. We've all been there.



I just worry about how new Canadians and Canadians are exploited. That doesn't do any good for anyone.

Most of the coffee shops and mall food court stalls that I have seen in Calgary appear to be foreign workers primarily from the Philippines..



I don't know what their status is, but the ones I am referring to have accents from the Philippines.

[Obvious Li]

Just curious, is every single Mickey D's/Timmy's/hotel in Vancouver majority foreign visa holders? It is in Edmonton.

I don't really know! I can't usually tell if they're foreign, Canadian or new Canadian.



I do know that a lot of real foreign temp workers work in the farms around the Lower Mainland. Where I live downtown, a lot of foreign workers from Asia, Europe, Central and South America are working in the service industries. Many of them are students or looking for a new life.



New Canadians are awesome. We've all been there.



I just worry about how new Canadians and Canadians are exploited. That doesn't do any good for anyone.

all groups of newcomers to canada were exploited to some degree...no big deal...by the 2nd. or 3rd. generation they own every fucking corner store in town.....that's the way God meant it to be......gotta pay your dues just like every other generation did...... :ugeek:

[Anonymous]

Just curious, is every single Mickey D's/Timmy's/hotel in Vancouver majority foreign visa holders? It is in Edmonton.

I don't really know! I can't usually tell if they're foreign, Canadian or new Canadian.



I do know that a lot of real foreign temp workers work in the farms around the Lower Mainland. Where I live downtown, a lot of foreign workers from Asia, Europe, Central and South America are working in the service industries. Many of them are students or looking for a new life.



New Canadians are awesome. We've all been there.



I just worry about how new Canadians and Canadians are exploited. That doesn't do any good for anyone.

all groups of newcomers to canada were exploited to some degree...no big deal...by the 2nd. or 3rd. generation they own every fucking corner store in town.....that's the way God meant it to be......gotta pay your dues just like every other generation did...... :ugeek:

My brother and I have had easier lives in Canada than our parents did..



Both of my parents have worked hard at tough jobs.

[Obvious Li]

i read in a newspaper the other day that here, in Paradise, the 2nd. largest ethnic group behind Ukrainians (who have been here for a hundred years) is now Filipinos....i work with six of them.....i think it's great......they all came with temporary work permits......all have stayed permanently.....they send a fucking container full of shit back to the Philippines every month....you need a dam forklift to get the boxes into their van.....everything from electronics to clothes, food, school supplies, anything you can imagine off it goes....they have a deal with some container shipping company out of Winnipeg to ship a large size box of any weight to the Philippines for a flat fee of $50 so it's katy bar the door on how heavy they can pack it.,