July 2, 2008

Temporary Foreign Workers

Initiative aims to educate workers in Alberta

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

Temporary foreign workers (TFW) in Alberta are being encouraged to learn their workplace rights.

The provincial Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) is in the early stages of launching a campaign to educate temporary foreign workers about their rights, wages and benefits.

The issue of temporary foreign workers is a concern for the board, so it will soon be launching the multi-language campaign.

“This year, we (the WCB) decided to expand our target audience to include temporary foreign workers,” said WCB spokeswoman Jennifer Dagsvik.

“Being in a new country with new laws, temporary foreign workers may experience the same fears as young workers feel. A fear of speaking up for their safety.”

Dagsvik explained that TFWs may be scared of losing their job, hitting a language barrier, looking weak or not knowing how to ask if a job is safe.

“We were planning our campaign for young workers and thought it was an opportunity to see why people don’t speak up,” she said.

“This is the first proactive campaign aimed at temporary foreign workers in Alberta.”

Give Safety a Voice is the theme of the campaign, and one of the posters will feature a close up of a south Asian man wearing a hard hat and safety glasses on a construction site.

In the background, the same man fell over some lumber and sustained an injury.

“You may not speak the boss’s language but you still have the right to work in a safe place,” it states. “Don’t let fear silence you into expecting anything less. Give safety a voice.”

Over his mouth is a piece of duct tape with the words, Fear of not being understood.

According to Dagsvik, the campaign will also feature other posters and a brochure specifically aimed at TFWs.

The WCB is in the process of figuring out what languages should be offered for the brochure and the posters.

It will send out letters to various associations to ask if they have specific preferences.

Once this is done, 10,000 brochures will be printed and sent out to all associations affiliated with TFWs.

For the past several years, the WCB in Alberta ran a campaign aimed at young workers between the ages of 16 and 24 called Heads Up.

This year, the WCB is expanding and re-designing their Heads Up brochures.

It will be releasing three different brochures aimed at young workers, foreign workers and employers.

The brochures will explain that all workers in Alberta who work in WCB covered industries are covered with no-fault insurance, if they are injured on the job.

They will also show workers how to get the information they need.

A large share of the funding for the campaign came from the Alberta Ministry of Employment and Immigration.

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