LATEST NEWS
O H & S | Skills Training | Professional Services | Green Building
July 2, 2008
Temporary Foreign Workers
Initiative aims to educate workers in Alberta
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.
| MOST POPULAR STORIES |
- Government takes over Northwest Territories P3 bridge project
- Venues decommissioned in Olympic afterglow
- Construction restarting on hospital in Fort St. John, British Columbia
- Dominion Construction gets two B.C. contracts
- Hogg’s Hollow tragedy changed Ontario’s construction industry
- 20 Most Popular Stories
| TODAY’S TOP CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS |
These projects have been selected from 371 projects with a total value of $1,380,346,147 that Reed Construction Data Building Reports reported on yesterday.
$55,000,000 Winnipeg MB CANCELLED/ DEFERRED
CONDOMINIUM APARTMENT, COMMERCIAL & HOTEL ALTS
$50,000,000 Vancouver BC Prebid
$30,000,000 Wainwright AB Prebid
| CURRENT STORIES |
- Venues decommissioned in Olympic afterglow
- Canadian Construction Association chair bids farewell
- Wood being considered as preferred building material for federal projects
- Grizzly Oil Sands seeks approval for project near Fort McMurray
- Search continues for sustainable architecture
- Seven British Columbia communities sign Wood First agreements
- U.S. construction employment declines in January
- Ottawa unveils plan to cut red tape
- Canadian Construction Association awards highlight excellence
- Pride, sadness as Hogg's Hollow memorial unveiled
- Commemorative quilt gets permanent home
- ‘Sandhogs’ who perished had diverse personal stories
- Coverage of Hogg’s Hollow tragedy anniversary should be required reading
- Pursuit of LEED could result in professional negligence, insurance executive warns
- New Brunswick to cover debts of troubled Atcon Group
- Ex-Quebec minister says Liberals got ‘generous’ donations from construction sector
- Regulatory delays hinder start of Mackenzie Gas Project
- Las Vegas CityCenter general contractor Perini Building suing MGM Mirage
| ALEX’S ECONOMICS BLOG |

Reed Construction Data Chief Economist Alex Carrick discusses current developments in the North American economic environment with emphasis on the construction industry.
- Sub-sector investment spending intentions from Statistics Canada’s latest survey (March 17, 2010)
- A dozen incredible measurement sets on Canada’s changing ethnic mix (March 9, 2010)
- How fragile is recovery around the world? (March 3, 2010)
- More

| PROJECT NEWS BRIEFS |
Updates on Canadian construction projects from Reed Construction Data’s research team. More 
- Rounthwaite Dick & Hadley Architects begin work on arena plans for Flamborough, Ontario (Aug 17, 2009)
- Orillia Market Square aims for LEED Silver certification (Jun 25, 2009)
- Designs for new York Region District School Board building features energy efficiency (Jun 23, 2009)
- IPC Energy considers Milford location for future wind farm (May 22, 2009)
- Waterloo partnership seeks LEED Silver for West Side Family YMCA and District Library (May 22, 2009)



