Provincial labour minister weighs in on Donkin controversy
Nova Scotia’s Labour minister says his department has no authority relating to the federal temporary foreign workers program for which the Donkin mine has been penalized for misusing.
In a post-cabinet scrum and conference call with reporters, Labi Kousoulis said what his department can do is ensure Nova Scotia labour and safety standards are being met.
“We just help facilitate the program on behalf of the federal government,” he said.
Kameron
Coal, the company operating the mine, was penalized after it was discovered it was paying some temporary foreign workers at a much higher rate of pay that it had proposed when the jobs were advertised for Canadians. The company is appealing the punishment.
“Donkin looked at Nova Scotia in terms of finding the skillset that they required, as we know Nova Scotia hasn’t had an underground mine in many, many years and what the federal government deemed is that they should have had their scope of search for these highly skilled jobs outside of Nova Scotia and that they should have looked at all of Canada,” Kousoulis said.
Kousoulis said he did not consider it a fair practice by the company to pay higher amounts to temporary foreign workers than it had proposed to pay Canadians.
“Whatever they would have advertised for those jobs in Canada I would assume if they’re bringing in foreign workers they’re going to have the pay being the exact same,” he said.
“When you advertise a job, you put it at the rate you want to see what response you get.”
Generally, when issues have arisen with the mine, Kousoulis said the company has been good to work with his department.
“Any time our safety officers go in, any time something is done at the mine, it’s been rectified,” he said.
The mine has been the subject of some controversy since it went into production last year, having been cited with safety violations and for layoffs that took place in November.
In 2016, Kameron Coal Management Ltd. was selected for a random inspection for compliance under the conditions of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Preliminary findings of non-compliance on the conditions of wages, working conditions and Labour Market Impact Assessment accuracy were found which would have resulted in Kameron receiving an administrative penalty of
$230,000 and a 10-year ban from the TFW and International Mobility Program.
Following an assessment
of additional information from Kameron, the sanctions were amended to a penalty of $54,000 and one-year ban of the
programs. As well, Kameron’s name was posted on their noncompliant employers list on their website.
According to federal court documents, grounds Kameron was found to have paid wages to temporary foreign workers that were 60-120 per cent higher than specified and overtime rates 46-60 per cent higher as well as benefits and bonuses.
Kousoulis said it’s his understanding that the workers in question were highly skilled and included engineers and senior mine executives.
He said he doesn’t know whether Kameron Coal will be able to find that skillset by looking throughout Canada or whether there may be some provision for the company to retain some of the expertise.
Donkin Mine had appealed for removal of the judgement from the website citing reasons including harm to their reputation. In a Federal Court decision July 10, the appeal was denied.
Shannon Campbell, vice president of Donkin Mine, has said they won’t comment because the matter is under appeal.