Rights groups are calling of the scrapping of Harper government’s controversial temporary foreign worker program after the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario found Presteve Foods Limited discriminated against two women from Mexico working under the program and awarded the complainants the highest damages in the Tribunal’s history.

The Tribunal found that the women were exposed to sexual solicitation, sexual harassment, discrimination in employment, and a sexually poisoned work environment.

“I want to tell all women that are in a similar situation, that they should not be silent and that there is justice and they should not just accept mistreatment or humiliation,” a complainant in the case known by her initials O.P.T., who received $200,000 in damages, said. “We must not stay silent. [As a migrant] one feels that she/he has to stay there [in the workplace] and there is nowhere to go or no one to talk to. Under the temporary foreign worker program, the boss has all the power – over your money, house, status, everything. They have you tied to their will. It has been 8 years to obtain justice but 8 years and justice is finally here today.”

Unifor, the union representing O.P.T. and intervener groups say that the ruling underscores the failings of both the provincial and federal government to protect temporary foreign workers.

The union claims that the vulnerabilities and uncertainty that are created by temporary foreign worker program which ties the worker’s status in Canada to a single employer compels the workers to tolerate whatever mistreatment they are subjected to on the job.

“While an absolute vindication for these women, the real take-away from the case is that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program creates the conditions that allowed this exploitation to go unchecked,” Niki Lundquist, Unifor, Counsel to the Applicants said. “Handcuffing workers to employers creates vulnerability and without meaningful oversight, abuse is inevitable.”

“Workers in these programs are held hostage by a single employer. There is no way to leave.” said Grace Vaccarelli, Human Rights Legal Support Centre said. “While we are satisfied the Tribunal ordered financial compensation to two of the women who were assaulted and threatened with deportation, the case cries out for a systemic overhaul of the programs and protections for migrant workers.”

“This decision is an indictment not only against Jose Pratas and Presteve Foods but an indictment against Canada’s temporary foreign worker program,” Justicia for Migrant Workers organizer Chris Ramsaroop said. “We hope this decision breaks the silence of tens of thousands who toil under exploitative working and living conditions.”

In his ruling, adjudicator Mark Hart repeatedly commented on the vulnerability of O.P.T. as a migrant worker:  “…migrant workers, like OPT live under the ever-present threat of having their designated employer decide to end the employment relations for which they require no reason and for which there is no appeal or review” (paragraph 216).

Experts have claimed that the changes made last summer by the then Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander have made the situation worse for temporary foreign workers.

“The changes that have been made, both to the temporary foreign worker program, in June, and to the live-in caregiver program, have not in any way addressed the structural vulnerabilities that are created by those tied permits and temporariness,” Fay Faraday, Lawyer, Visiting Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, told a Parliamentary committee on the Status of Women last year. “What’s disturbing about some of the changes is that under the high medical needs stream, a series of female-dominated jobs where workers used to be able to apply directly for permanent status under the federal high-skilled program are being shifted into temporariness.”

The groups are calling on the federal government to replace the TFW program with a system that offers a path to citizenship and stricter enforcement of labour laws holding both employers and recruiters liable for violations against migrant workers.

Jose Pratas, the former owner of Presteve Foods who pleaded guilty to seven counts of assault against his workers, received a conditional discharge with three months of probation in 2011.