Two companies based in Alberta are appealing decisions of the Ministry of Labor of Ontario that say they charged temporary foreign workers tens of thousands of dollars to be placed in retail jobs in a Canadian tire. Companies were ordered to pay almost $ 165,000.
Some of the workers were originally from the Philippines, but ended up in a Canadian tire in Etobicoke, Ontario. Although they said that each one paid us up to $ 7,900 to an Alberta company to obtain the position, once they obtained the jobs, they say they were poorly paid and poorly treated.
Many of the workers resigned and found jobs in the Atlantic of Canada and other provinces throughout the country.
An employment standards of the Ministry of Labor of Ontario conducted an investigation after a series of workers’ complaints in October 2023. The Ministry issued payment orders on May 14 against Allison Jones Consulting and AJ Immigration Group in eight cases. Both companies share an owner, Allison Jones, and a common direction in St. Albert, Alta.
Allison Jones rejected an interview and told CBC News by email that companies are appealing the decisions.
“We trust the appeal process and we are committed to a fair and precise resolution based on a complete review of the facts,” he wrote.
One of the workers who received the recent decision was Rowell Pailan, who previously shared his story with CBC News from his home in Wolfville, ns
Pailan says he came to Canada in 2023 after they offered a position as a stock employee in a Canadian Ontario tire. However, Paystubs that showed CBC News indicated that, although he began to receive the payment in the salary of his contract, his salaries were reduced later, which made him a challenge to pay his invoices and keep his family in the Philippines.
He says he got the position after paying the rate to the Jones company using money to family members.
The employment standards of the Ministry of Labor of Ontario said that Jones should pay Paillan $ 10,655.52 in Canadian dollars, the calculated equivalent of the $ 7,900 US that he paid in 2022, plus an administration rate of ten percent.
“YO [was] Very happy and with a weeping eyes, because I finally got justice, “he said in a telephone interview.
“Maybe they [were] Thinking that they can do what they want, because we are eager to come to Canada, “said Pailan, added that he wants to send a message that people should not” take advantage of “temporary foreign workers.
“We had no idea about the amount with respect to the immigration rate, or whatever will come to Canada.”
Companies acted together, says the decision
It is illegal according to the Federal and Ontario law that a recruiter charges a foreign worker for a job placement; The recruiter must be supposed to be paid by the employer.
However, it is legal to collect a rate for immigration or assistance advice with immigration paperwork.
In the written decision issued to Pailan and reviewed by CBC News, a lawyer of the two companies told the employment standards that Allison Jones Consulting and AJ Immigration are “separate and independent” companies, each with their own brand and billing.
The lawyer told the officer that Allison Jones Consulting accused Canadian pulled for recruitment services, while AJ Immigration Group was a separate entity that provided immigration services to foreign workers and charged rates for these services.
This did not convince the employment standards Charles Beauparlant, who concluded that the fees were not legal because both companies were related. He discovered that they shared “common management” in the owner, Allison Jones.
“It does not change the fact that both companies worked as a comprehensive and unified business,” BeaupaLant wrote in his decision in the case of Pailan.
The position of Jones, according to the lawyer, was that she is the “directed mind” behind the recruitment company, but not the other company, since “it does not participate in the daily operation of AJ immigration.”
In his email to CBC News, Jones declared his position again.
“We are respectfully disagree with the findings and the characterization of these two companies, Allison Jones Consulting Services Inc. and AJ Immigration Group Inc., as a ‘unified business’,” he wrote.
“Each is a different legal entity, and both argue that their respective practices completely comply with applicable legislation.”
BeaupaLant discovered that he evidences how the emails of employees and information on the two Jones business website showed that both companies were sharing employees and that Jones was the “controlling mind” behind both.
He also noted that Jones was described as the leader of both companies in a sentence on the Allison Jones Consulting website that said: “She has successfully directed companies since the beginning creating one of the main recruitment agencies in Canada and immigration consultancies.”
In addition, BeaupaLant wrote: “Having AJ Immigration Group Inc. raises rates through a retention agreement after each recruitment phase demonstrates not only its participation, but also confirms even more than AJ immigration was helping in the process of finding the claiming job.”
Pailan previously told CBC News that he had to pay in three stages.
The officer issued identical orders to both Jones companies, but Ontario’s Ministry of Labor told CBC News that the intention was that companies should pay Pailan “together”, not twice.
The ministry also fined Allison Jones consulting $ 250 for each of the eight cases, for a total of $ 2,000.
‘An affront to our entire system’
Chris Ramsaroop is an instructor at the University of Toronto and organizer with justice for migrant workers, which supported Pailan’s case.
He says that workers should be those who make sure the process is followed.
“There is an expectation that [the workers] You need to present, instead that the province or the federal government take measures to protect the interests of workers, “he said.
“This is an affront to our entire system, this is disgusting.”
Ramsaroop feels that temporary foreign workers such as Pailan are in extremely vulnerable positions, and placing their responsibility to pursue the case at the next level when there is an appeal is a high load.
Pailan tells him that he does not recover the money after an appeal.
“That amount is not a joke, it is totally large,” he said, adding that he is trying to pay his relatives who lent him the money.
Ramsaroop said that temporary foreign workers are often linked to a single job under the closed system allows, which makes their position in Canada vulnerable.
“These injustices will continue as a result of a system in which we have workers linked to a particular employer,” he said.
Catherine Connelly, Human Resources and Management professor at McMaster University, explains why she believes that the closed permissions system that links temporary workers to workplaces must be discarded.
Canadian tire store still under investigation
The Ontario Ministry of Labor confirmed that it is also investigating complaints against the Canadian tire store where workers were employed, but the case is still open.
There is a separate federal investigation in progress for the employment and social development of Canada in that Canadian tire, but at the beginning of June, it was not complete either.
The owner of the store, Ezhil Natarajan, previously told CBC News that “he vehemently denies” all the accusations against him.
Canadian Tire Corporation made a policy change in the autumn of 2024 to prohibit their stores from using recruiters who charge rates to temporary foreign workers.
The corporation said it made the decision together with its distributors, who have franchiseed stores and make their own hiring decisions.
