Beyond the Gordo and Tongson case is a pattern of abuse against LCP
Beyond the Gordo and Tongson case is a pattern of abuse against LCP
The accusations of abuse and violations of labour standards, including the withholding of the caregivers’ passports, from domestic workers Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongson against Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla bring to the fore the flaws and weaknesses of the Live-in-Caregiver Program (LCP).
The LCP puts the nannies and caregivers in a situation where they are vulnerable to abuses and violence. Over the years, nannies and caregivers have told their stories and experiences of woes and exploitation from the hands of their employers and agencies. Time and again, these have been brought to the attention of the government agencies, like the Provincial Employment Standard offices as well as the Federal government. Among others, these abuses include long hours of work without overtime pay, sexual and psychological harassment, and being made to do chores that are not part of the contract they entered into.
The LCP suffers from the government’s glaring lack of monitoring mechanisms to check on the status of the caregivers hired under the program. Many of them choose to suffer in silence, afraid to lose their jobs and not be able to complete the 24/36 months eligibility requirement for permanent residence status. And the reason they submit to all this hardship is to be able to take care of their families they left behind in the Philippines.
The LCP provides the services that are very much needed in Canada because the program offers an alternative, low-cost but high quality childcare, elderly care or disabled care to Canadians who can afford it (or exploit it). The LCP cannot be the answer to the Canadian government’s inability or unwillingness to provide accessible, universal childcare and affordable sick and elderly care to its citizens. The LCP is structured to exploit the weak and vulnerable migrant workers, most of whom are women, coming from less developed countries.
The much-publicized case of Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongson will not be resolved in the media. Let us be wary of political parties and political figures who will certainly use this case to their political advantage. Let us welcome those who will push for strong recommendations to the Canadian government to uphold the interests and welfare of the live-in-caregivers through structural changes in the Program.
While Migrante BC welcomes the Parliamentary Committee hearings on this case, we remind the Canadian public and the Canadian government that yes, it must investigate the allegations against MP Ruby Dhalla, but it must go beyond this. The Canadian government should not treat this as an isolated incident but rather should use it to conduct a hearing on the pattern of abuses committed against live-in-caregivers and to undertake an honest and comprehensive review of the LCP with the end view to stopping the abuses arising from the program.
Migrante BC demands a fundamental change to the program: that permanent resident status be granted to live-in caregivers which will allow them to negotiate for better working conditions or change employers to escape abusive situations. They will also have better access to benefits and services and speed up reunification with their families. Even as we push for this fundamental change, we also urge that live-in arrangements should be optional and subject to contract negotiations between the employer and the live-in caregiver. We also recommend making the work permit job-specific instead of employer-specific. We urge the Canadian government to have regulatory and monitory mechanisms to protect these workers against abuses from their employers as well as unscrupulous agencies and private individuals involved in the recruitment of foreign caregivers and other migrant workers. Violations of labour standards and labour rights should be dealt with accordingly and violators penalized.
The call for fundamental changes to the LCP in Canada is strongly echoed in a resolution passed at the Founding Assembly of the International Migrants Alliance in Hong Kong last June 2008. It called for fundamental changes to the LCP and also supported campaigns for better policies on domestic workers as well as proper recognition and accreditation of their professions.
Migrante BC believes that the struggle of the live-in-caregivers is a struggle for the entire Filipino community, cognizant of the truth that the Philippines has made its labour export policy the mainstay of its economy. As long as there are no jobs and livelihood back home, we will see more and more Filipinos going abroad to work. One Canadian journalist described the LCP as an “example of globalization up close and in person, at a time of persistent poverty and economic disparities.” And while it says a lot about the crisis in the Philippines, it too says a lot about how Canada and Canadians treat their migrant workers.
(Statement of Migrante B.C.
May 20, 2009_
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