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23 Canadian Lab. & Emp. L.J. 71 (2021)
Flawed by Design? A Case Study of Federal Enforcement of Migrant Workers' Labour Rights in Canada

handle is hein.journals/canlemj23 and id is 77 raw text is: Flawed by Design? A Case Study of Federal Enforcement of Migrant Workers' Labour Rights in Canada Sarah Marsden,* Eric Tucker** & Leah F. Vosko*** Although Canada's migrant labour programs are seen by some as models of best practices, rights shortfalls and exploitation of workers are well docu- mented. Through migration policy, federal authorities determine who can hire migrant workers and the conditions under which they are employed, through the provision of work permits. Despite its authority over work permits, the federal government has historically had little to do with the regulation of working condi- tions. In 2015, the federal government introduced a new regulatory enforcement system - unique internationally for its attempt to enforce migrants' workplace rights through federal migration policy - under which employers must comply with contractual employment terms, uphold provincial workplace standards, and make efforts to maintain a workplace free of abuse. Drawing on enforce- ment data, and frontline law and policy documents, we critically assess the new enforcement system, concluding that, because of design flaws and implementa- tion failures, it does not realize its potential to protect workers' rights. 1. INTRODUCTION Canada is home to a longstanding and expansive tempor- ary migrant worker program. Migrant workers1 in Canada provide * Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University. ** Osgoode Hall Law School, York University; Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Cleveland Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University. *** Political Science, York University. Authorship is listed alphabetically to reflect equal contribution. 1 We use the term migrant worker to refer in general to workers in Canada with- out permanent residency status. In principle, this group includes undocumented workers, but because our study is focused on documented workers, the term has this more limited meaning herein. Documented migrant workers enter Canada under two programs: the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP). We refer to workers in the TFWP as TFWs. All TFWs fall within the inspection program. Only some workers migrat- ing under the IMP (those requiring closed work permits) fall within the ambit of the program. Our focus is TFWs, but, where appropriate, we indicate when we are also referring to covered IMP workers.

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