A vineyard in B.C.’s Okanagan has actually been completely prohibited from employing short-term international employees and fined $118,000, according to the federal government.
According to a notification on the government’s website, Toor Vineyards did not offer a government assessor with the papers they requested for and did not “put in enough effort” to make certain the office was devoid of physical, sex-related, emotional or economic misuse.
The notice likewise states the pay or functioning problems did not match what was provided on a work deal or a work was not the like what was supplied.
The information of these offenses have actually not been revealed.
Employers located to be non-compliant with guidelines under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) can obtain a financial fine, a restriction on employing short-term employees, or, as when it comes to this B.C. vineyard, both.
According to the federal government internet site, a long-term restriction is provided just for the most major offenses under the TFWP.
While Toor Vineyards does not show up to exist, the address provided for Toor Vineyards matches the address for Oliver, B.C.’s Desert Hills Estate Winery.
According to the federal government’s listing of companies that have actually been located non-compliant with the TFWP, Desert Hills Estate Winery was fined $16,000 in 2023. That listing recommends the penalty has actually not yet been paid, sinceJan 6, 2025.
CBC News has actually spoken to the vineyard for remark yet has actually not obtained an action.
Navid Bayat, personnel legal representative at the Migrant Workers Centre, stated a penalty of this quantity is “significant” including that he wishes it sends out a message to various other companies concerning the therapy of short-term international employees.
“This is quite a rare situation that they get a ban,” he stated.
“To me, it reads that they are coming out hard on a likely pattern of systemic violations of the temporary foreign worker program and of the rights of migrant workers who have come here under the pretence of being promised a job in Canada.”
Randhir (Randy) Toor was proprietor and head of state, at the very least at once, yet an Instagram message datedDec 22, 2023, stated Toor has actually relinquished the vineyard. In 2022, Toor begged guilty to 7 matters of advice or effort to advice misstatement under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Out of 957 offenses provided on the federal government internet site given that 2016, just one various other firm has actually been completely prohibited from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
