Quebec Labour Ministry raids Montreal-area workplaces alleged to be using black market labour

Six raids were conducted Tuesday in the Montreal area as part of a Quebec Labour Ministryinvestigation intoa job placement agency allegedly exploiting vulnerable workers.

A job placement agency has beenessentially running a black market labour ring, the ministry said in a news release.

It alleges the agency's operators are hiring workers who don't know their rights, including the right to a minimum wage and to protectionin the event of illness or job loss.

The ministry said it would not comment any further on the continuinginvestigation.

"For right now, we'll let the authorities do their work," QuebecLabour Minister Dominique Vientold reporters this afternoon.

Paulo's story

In an exclusive report last March,CBCNews told the story of a Haitian asylum seeker who said he was recruited by a temporary job placement agency in Montreal last October.

Paulo, whose name was changed to protect his identity, said the agency gave him another person's identity because he didn't have a work permit when he was first hired.

Three weeks after he began working, hesuffered a serious injury to his hand in an accident at a meat-processing plant.

Paulo later filed a claim withQuebec's workplace health and safety board (CNESST) to get compensation for the loss of his ability to work and some of his medical costs.

'Tip of the iceberg'

The ministry would not confirm whether Tuesday'sraids had anything to do with CBC's reporting.

However,Frantz Andr,an advocate for asylum seekers who has been helping Paulo with his case, said the link is clear.

"I have no doubt that there is surely a link between what happened this morning and the fact that we brought Paulo's case into the public eye," he told CBCNews.

Andr said he and Paulo metinvestigators from three different government agencies in the wake of the CBC report.

He said the raids were a "huge" step in the right direction to addressthe exploitation of vulnerable people.

"This is something huge and I think we have, once and for all,to tackle this," he said.

Michel Pilon, a former labour lawyer who advocates for immigrant workers, also said he's glad the ministry is looking into the issue.

"To me, Paulo's case is very, very clearly just one [of many]," Pilon said.

It's just "the tip of the iceberg."