BC Fed Files Complaint Over Treatment Of Mexican Workers At Dawson Creek Tim Hortons
Friday, November 9, 2012 @ 10:50 AM
Dawson Creek- The BC Federation of Labour has launched a complaint with the BC human Rights Tribunal on behalf of four temporary workers employed at two Tim Horton locations in Dawson Creek.
The BC Federation of labour alleges that the four workers were living, two a room, in a five bedroom home. In all the employer received $4,000 dollars a month rent for each of the two homes that the workers lived in.
The workers, the BC Fed says, were asked to pay $200.00 each at the beginning of the month and then and additional $200.00 mid month which the employer referred to as a “tip”, when Tim Horton’s advertised Double Double.
In addition, the allegations are ,that the workers were subjected to derogatory racist comments, including Mexicans are lazy, while the owner of the Tim Horton’s described himself as the owner of their lives.
When the workers raised the issue with the owner according to the allegations, the employer threatened to send them back to Mexico.
Two of the workers were fired after they complained about the working conditions , according to the BC Federation of Labour, and others were forced to leave for fear of reprisals.
Comments
Welcome to harpers NEW canada. Firstly, are these mexican temporary foreign workers, at which point they shouldn’t even be here taking jobs from locals, OR are they landed immigrans who are applying to become Canadian citizens. Secondly, BC is starting to sound like the southern border states who exploit cross border workers and threaten them with deportation if they don’t accept what is shoved at them. Disgraceful.
wow,,and the Tim Horton organization knows this crap is going on,,I may have to switch to starbucks
4 workers, 2 to a room, in a 5 bedroom home? The next sentence refers to 2 homes? Doesn’t add up. What am I missing here?
Exactly, News2me …….
I take it that there were 10 workers living in each house. For two houses that would make 20 workers.
The complaints were launched by 4, not by all 20. In fact, there is nothing in the information that even implies that the people staying in the house were all Mexicans or that they all worked for Tim Hortons.
These are rooming houses, likely not zoned for that. Likely single family residences. A common limit to non-related people living in a single family residence is 6. So, likely a zoning infraction if it is a single family residence.
Time to go after the owner of the houses big time on several fronts ….!!!
Not uncommon for these workers all over the north its a shame saw it for myself in Dawson, when ordering coffee the manager riped into a worker in front of everyone because she spilt a coffee.Told the manager chil out only a coffee he said these people have to learn the hardway, gave him my coffee back and have never been back.
Starting to sound like the Silviculture camp problem a year or so ago ….. possibly Ministry of Labour not doing their job either.
Of course everyone is going to deny responsibility.
Jeez …. if that sort of stuff is going on, time to fire the manager(s) and keep the workers.
And I was going to propose as late as yesterday that in relation to these Chinese mine owners bringing Chinese workers over, Tim Hortons should bring Canadians into their overseas operations. I think they are in China by now. But here they are bringing Mexicans into domestic operations.
Is selling coffee and donuts a specialized skill that too few Canadians have? I doubt it. Nor are these seasonal jobs. Why are temporary foreign workers working at Tim Hortons?
bill: “Is selling coffee and donuts a specialized skill that too few Canadians have? I doubt it. Nor are these seasonal jobs. Why are temporary foreign workers working at Tim Hortons?”
Canadians don’t want those jobs, and people gotta have their Timmy’s. This isn’t just at Tim Hortons, but many fast food franshises.
The reason that Timmies and other service industries in “boom towns” such as ft st john is that no one wants to work for minimum wage when they can get a oil or gas job for 3 or 4 times that.
Then there are the other unskilled labourers that are chronically unemployed because of life choices they have made, ergo substance use/abuse.
So, whining about these particular workers stealing jobs from Canadians, it just ain’t so.
“If” we could get our youth to show up for work everyday, all day, and actually perform their duties, this would be a non issue.
Again, this situation is brought upon us by us.
Don’t go blaming the foreign workers looking to improve their quality of life by:
1) Leaving their home and family behind
2) Traveling to a foreign country, often far away
3) risking mistreatment with out being protected as a full citizen of the country
4) living in a rooming house with all those implications
5) Sending all their income back home
6) and will have to leave the country at the end of their contract
Such a sweet deal, eh?
cheese
Bill: No the jobs are not seasonal or highly skilled however, in Dawson Creek we have a too many jobs and not enough people. The lower paid jobs are the hardest to fill. We need foreign workers or we don’t have a service industry.
What happened to these workers is a disgrace and I hope it will make people think twice about buying their coffee at Tim Hortons in this town.
I’m not blaming the foreign workers, or in any way justifying their being treated badly, just wondering what they were doing there. It’s a shame that the government doesn’t more closely monitor the living conditions, pay, and treatment of such foreign workers.
Tim Horton’s is an awful company selling godawful swill wrapped in a phony flag.
“Not uncommon for these workers all over the north its a shame saw it for myself in Dawson, when ordering coffee the manager riped into a worker in front of everyone because she spilt a coffee.Told the manager chil out only a coffee he said these people have to learn the hardway, gave him my coffee back and have never been back”
Bravo, well done!
Hopefully Tim Hortons head office gets a copy of this story and they have a chat with the franchise owner. If true, the person should lose their franchise. Treat people like that and you deserve it.
Loki and Dawsoncreeker hit the nail on the head. FSJ and DC are boom towns right now. Anyone with a pulse can get a well paying job.
However that doesn’t mean that business owners and managers can exploit those folks brought in to do the job. This is exactly the stuff we’ve come to expect from ‘Business’ leaders who will exploit any and every loophole to make a buck on the backs of their employees. Its really why the economy is in such poor shape all over the world….
It’s to bad. The Tim Horton’s Franchises are a licence to print money for the owners and in a town like Dawson Creek,with a non stop rush hour, well pffft! Timmies has got to be rolling in it.
Timmies employees are getting well more than minimum wage in Dawson Creek. The Canadian citizen employees are anyway.
I have witnessed mexican temp workers in Alberta. The Alberta govt pays their rent and I’m wondering if BC does the same? The Tim Horton owner up there needs a beating — damn good one too.
Doesn’t Dairy Queen here get it’s workers from the Philippines?
So do the math on the complaint….
5 bedrooms x 2 workers/room x $400/month = $4000/house
Seems like alot but that’s way cheaper than a hotel room,especially in Dawson Creek. What do rooming houses charge?
Foreigners are working these jobs because Canadians Althing they are above working at coffee shops and fast food restaurants. It’s sickening. There are enough people on welfare and assistance to fill many of these jobs but most of these people would rather sit on their ass than make an honest living. Which means that these positions either sit I filled because the establishments can’t find workers or they hire temporary foreign workers. I see nothing wrong with the latter but have some common sense and treat these people with respect and dignity and basic human rights. This is ridiculous and the manager of this establishment should be stripped of his position as he is clearly on a power trip.
[URL]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/11/10/bc-tim-hortons-complaint.html?cmp=rss[URL/]
Oops . . .
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/11/10/bc-tim-hortons-complaint.html?cmp=rss
The problem is we have opportunists in society that see the opportunity to take advantage of a foreign worker, because our government turns a blind eye to modern slavery.
Sure they may get paid well compared to where they come from… but in the old days of slavery one had a responsibility for his slaves… in the modern era this responsibility is removed under the wage labor contract.
Its a race to the bottom where an employer pays a small wage to a foreign worker, and then feels it gives them a right to impinge on that workers dignity and security with the threat of deportation and the fact that our government encourages this behavior by having two sets of standards… one set of standards and rights for a Canadian worker, and another for the ‘foreign’ worker. We all loose in the end as a society as long as we allow two sets of standards.
I think anyone working in Canada under a work visa should first have to go through a indoctrination program detailing their rights (paid for by the employer), ditto (training) for the hiring employer and their responsibilities… and their employment should be governed by the same standards and pay rates that a Canadian worker could expect. Otherwise it just breeds and enables abuse by the opportunist like the franchisee owner in Dawson Creek… and the mine operators in the Northeast.
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