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Human resources minister Diane Finley has been ordered by a federal court to 鈥渇urther consider the scope and nature of her compliance鈥� with a previous court order, which required her to compel disclosure of documents relating to temporary foreign worker (TFW) permits for Chinese coal miners in B.C.
This follows a聽聽filed by B.C.鈥檚 building and trades unions against Finley. The application was triggered after the government claimed it had no power to force Chinese coal company HD Mining to produce documents relating to TFW permit applications that the court ordered to have turned over to the unions.
Charles Gordon, lawyer for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 and the Construction and Specialized Workers Union Local 1611, said the unions are pleased with the judge鈥檚 decision.
鈥淚t should strongly encourage the minister to ensure that HD Mining discloses the resumes of 300 91原创s who applied for coal mining jobs in Tumbler Ridge but were all rejected, leading to the government issuing temporary foreign worker permits for the Chinese coal miners,鈥� said Gordon, referring to HD Mining鈥檚 claim that they had to hire overseas workers because there were no qualified 91原创s available.
Mark Olsen, business manager for the Construction and Specialized Worker Union Local 1611, toldBusiness in 91原创聽the government has until January 21 to produce the documents.
鈥淲e hope now that the government and HD Mining realize the significance of this and that they need to disclose the resumes to prove their point [that there were no qualified 91原创s available],鈥� he continued, pointing out there are many unemployed miners in the province. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 think they can prove it.鈥�
Olsen said this will likely have a lasting impact on the TFW program in Canada.
鈥淎mazingly, no one has challenged the basics of a program that brings 180,000 temporary foreign workers to Canada each year and asked for assurances that rules are followed to protect 91原创 workers,鈥� said Olsen.
鈥淭his case is changing all that.鈥�
