Page 16 - Best Magazine Summer Edition 2019

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ECONOMY AND FINANCE
Foreign Workers’ Supply Chain: Keep it Clean From ‘Labour
Human Trafficking’
WRITTEN BY WORKPLACE LAWYER, ANTONIO F. URDANETA
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It seems that RTL Service of Barrie in Ontario (RTL Service) found that the line between criminal charges and not having a workplace legal infrastructure is very thin.
Earlier this year, CBC reported that the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) freed 43 Mexicans workers brought to Canada by alleged ‘human traffickers’ under the promise of work visas and permanent residency status. These workers were freed after an investigation of about 250 officers that included Barrie’s Police and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
As a result of this investigation “four Barrie residents [yes, RTL Service’s owner(s)/staff - ages 54, 51, 24 and 19] have now been charged with several offences as part of ongoing labour human trafficking investigation.”
RTL Service is a company alleged to have supplied foreign nationals as forced labour to unaware Ontarian businesses who needed these workers. A match made in heaven ... or in hell, if you were one of the foreign workers, allegedly trafficked for labour, who reportedly said to an investigator: "Last night, I went to bed a slave. This morning, I woke up a free man."
The four Barrie residents are facing at least five charges contrary to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and the Criminal Code (Code), including trafficking in persons. According to the Code, trafficking in persons is committed by:“Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation [...]”
Failed Workplace Legal Compliance
Whether the four Barrie residents would go to jail or not is a matter for the courts to decide. But I’m certain that the residents’ attempt to stay out of jail would include going through their workplace legal infrastructure (or lack thereof ). For foreign workers recruiters like RTL Service, and their business clients, staying away from jail may not be a matter of immigration alone, but an endeavour that includes compliance with workplace laws.
News media outlets reported that the police found that the victims lived in poor conditions, wages were mostly withheld, and workers had to pay a fee for accommodation and transportation. These findings suggest that there were at least three related businesses in the supply chain of these 43 foreign workers: (i) recruitment; (ii) housing; and (iii) transportation.
THE BEST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2019
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