Temporary foreign workers sue lobster processor over pain, suffering and lost wages

Two temporary foreign workers are suing a northeast New Brunswick lobster plant for lost wages, wrongful termination and emotional pain and suffering.

Juan Pablo Lerma Lopez and Adriana de Leon Silva say that LeBreton Fisheries Inc. owes them about $7,000 each in contracted wages and are seeking $12,000 in damages after the company ended their contract early in 2023.

LeBreton Fisheries in Grand-Anse, on the Acadian Peninsula, was previously fined $365,000 and banned from hiring temporary foreign workers for two years after an investigation by Immigration, Refugees and CitizenshipCanada.

The details of the investigations have not been made public, including whatledto the fine and what year theoffences took place. The fine is the highest in Canada, according to the federal non-compliance database.

WATCH | 'The industry here would be dead without migrant workers':

Temporary foreign workers sue lobster-processing plant

15 days ago

Duration 1:02

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change group says the federal and provincial governments are denying responsibility for the abuse migrant workers face.

On Tuesday, Juan Pablo Lerma Lopez appeared at a news conference organized by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, a national advocacy group.

"We have enough of abuses and we will not be silent anymore,"said Lopez, whose Spanish was interpreted by Niger Saravia, an organizer with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Lopez said he was promised steady work for six months at the lobster-processing plant but did not get that. He said he was left without income,foodor any way to support his family back home in Mexico.

"I trusted the word of the company that brought me in," Lopez said.

"And I believed that these types of abuses that I was experiencing did not happen in the First World countries. But that was not the case."

Lopez remained in Canada after being dismissed from LeBreton, while Adriana de Leon Silva went back to Mexico.

Last month, the United Nations' special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery released a scathing report on Canada's temporary foreign worker program.

The report outlines issues of wage theft, excessive work hours, limited breaks and physical abuse within the system. Special rapporteur Tomoya Obokata said he received reports of workers being underpaid and going without protective equipment, and of employers confiscating documents, arbitrarily cutting working hours and preventing workers from seeking health care.

Breach of contract allegations

According to the statement of claim against LeBreton, shared with CBCNews by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, the two employees landed in New Brunswick in April 2023 to work as general labourers in the processing plant.

The lawsuit says their contract stipulated they would have "an average" of 30 hours of work per week, over the course of six months.

In signing, the lawsuit says, the workers expected to be paid a minimum of $12,800, since the hourly wage was $16.50.

However, the suit says the employees ended up having several periods of work interruptions, adding up to about four weeks, and then their jobs were terminated early.

"The Plaintiffs were under a tremendous amount of stress," the lawsuit says.

"During these interruptions in work the Plaintiffs could not afford to buy food, pay their rent, or send money home to their families, who were relying on them."

Through the temporary foreign worker program, employees are issued closed work permits, meaning they are only allowed to work for the employer sponsoring them.

LeBreton offered "cash advances" on the employees' pay so they could afford food, the lawsuit says, lending De Leon Silva $100 and Lopez $250, amounts deducted from their next pay.

The suit says LeBreton rented rooms to the employees for $300 a month.

"Lopez was housed at Motel Bel-Air where he shared a room with two other LeBreton employees," the suit says. "De Leon Silva shared a room with one other LeBreton employee."

On the fourth month of the contract, the lawsuit says, the company distributed written notices of termination. The lawsuit alleges the human resource manager "explained to the workers that they needed to sign the document if they wanted their flights home paid for."

Termination options

The lawsuit says the letter gave the workers two options.

The first was to return to their country immediately, withLeBretoncoveringthe cost of the return journey, and remaining "eligible to reapply for a position" in 2024. The second option was forworkers who wanted to stay in Canada for the remaining time of their permit. They were tosubmit a resignation letter, and vacate their accommodations.

"Under this option, the workers' health insurance coverage would stop from the effective date of their forced resignation," the lawsuit says.

The New Brunswick Health Department previously confirmed that only foreign workers with a work permit of 12 months or more are eligible for Medicare.

"The government is giving too much power to the employers and not giving power to the workers," Saravia said Tuesday.

In a news release, De Leon Silva is quoted saying: "I am back in my country because the employer sent me back because I tried to assert my rights."

Kathlin LeBreton,who runs LeBreton Fisheries, previously said that the work interruptions were caused by a slow lobster season, and he sent the employees home early because the plant was shutting down. A spokesperson for the company said there would be no comment.

As for Lopez and the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, their message is clear. They say the only way forward is for the province to pressure the federal government to makeinstitutional changes to the temporary foreign worker program.

"The government has not given the tools to migrant workers to assert their rights without fear of reprisals and deportations," Saravia said.

"And that tool is permanent residentstatus. There is no other way."