Migrant New Brunswick workers sue seafood processor, claiming exploitation

Two migrant workers are suing a New Brunswick seafood processing company for what they allege was “widespread exploitation” and mistreatment.

Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said the lawsuit, filed last month in New Brunswick small claims court, was served to LeBreton & Sons Fisheries Tuesday morning. The Toronto-based advocacy organization helped the workers prepare the lawsuit.

Juan Pablo Lerma Lopez and Adriana de Leon Silva, both from Mexico, are seeking wages that they say they are owed under a six-month contract they entered into last year. They are also seeking $12,500 each for the “great emotional pain and stress that Lebreton inflicted” on them, a statement of claim says.

Lopez is asking for $7,359. He states he was paid $6,015 but should have earned $13,374. De Leon Silva alleges she was paid $6,837 but is owed another $6,537. “We’re filing this claim to get these two particular workers the money they’re owed,” Hussan said.

Lopez and de Leon Silva were among 80 migrant workers hired through the federal temporary foreign workers program last year to work at LeBreton’s lobster and crab processing plants near Tracadie-Sheila, N.B., the court document says.

It says LeBreton agreed to pay for the workers’ round-trip travel from Mexico to Canada and the company provided housing, charging them $300 per month.

Lopez lived in a company-owned motel where he shared a room with two other LeBreton employees, while De Leon Silva lived in a house with 12 other people, the document says. A company vehicle took them to the plant, and without it the workers had “virtually no way of getting around, since they were located in remote areas without access to public transit,” it says.

The lawsuit alleges there was no work available for the two people until two weeks after their April 23, 2023 arrival in the province, and that they were also idle between July 5 and Aug. 15. Lopez and de Leon Silva were unable to earn money elsewhere during these periods because of the rules of the foreign workers program.

“They remained tied to LeBreton via closed work permits but received no pay for this five-week period,” the document says. “Having only arrived in Canada two months earlier, the plaintiffs were under a tremendous amount of stress. During these interruptions in work the plaintiffs, could not afford to buy food, pay their rent, or send money home to their families, who were relying on them.”

The allegations contained in the court filing have not been tested in court. After The Canadian Press contacted LeBreton about the lawsuit Tuesday, a spokesman who did not provide his name returned the call to say the company had no comment.

The statement of claim says that on July 16, 2023, 49 of the migrant workers were told they were being sent home early. One worker, on behalf of the remaining workers, wrote to the company on July 28, requesting, among other things, full pay for at least 30 hours a week over the expected length of the contract and a break from paying rent when they were not working.

On Aug. 18, the lawsuit continues, the company’s human resources manager visited their dwellings and gave the remaining workers written notices of termination, including Lopez and de Leon Silva.

The termination letter offered the workers two choices, the lawsuit says. They could return to their country of origin immediately and LeBreton would help cover the cost of the journey and give them an option of applying for employment the following season. Or those wanting to remain in Canada to seek other work had to submit a resignation letter and vacate their accommodations by Aug. 26. The company also took away the vehicles on Aug. 19, 2023, leaving the workers “virtually stranded,” the court document says.

“The impression conveyed to the plaintiffs and the other migrant workers was that the forced resignation letters, the removal of company vehicles, and the blacklisting of workers with other employers were punitive measures taken by LeBreton in retaliation for the collective organizing the migrant workers were doing to negotiate improvements to their working and living conditions,” the document says.

Lopez decided not to sign the termination letter and received a new work permit in September. De Leon Silva, for her part, felt she had no choice but to sign the resignation letter, the document adds.

The lawsuit comes after a United Nations special rapporteur released a scathing report on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, saying there is a power imbalance that prevents migrant workers from exercising their rights.