Three Alberta businesses whose owners are facing criminal charges for human trafficking and labour law charges in a case involving seven temporary foreign workers have yet to be put on the federal government’s blacklist of employers who have broken the rules of the TFW Program.

Varinder Sidhu and Ravinder Sidhu of Red Deer, who own Econo Lodge Inn & Suites, Holiday Liquor Store and Winks convenience store, were charged in April by the RCMP Organized Crime unit for breaching the federal Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

They were subsequently charged with violating Alberta’s Employment Standards Code, including advising employees to lie to investigating officers and falsifying employment records, and were also ordered to pay $83,000 in earnings owed to the employees and more than $8,000 in costs.

Despite facing criminal and labour law charges, the names of the three businesses do not appear on that government’s blacklist, which was announced with much fanfare by Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and the then Employment Minister Jason Kenney.

“The blacklist deals with employers applying for labour market opinions from Service Canada, which is an ESD agency,” Minister Kenney told the House of Commons last year. “I am pleased to say that since December last, we have put in place a meaningful blacklist. We are now adding abusive employers to it.”

However, only three employers have been added to the list since Kenney made that statement, bringing the total to four, while a province-wide employment standards blitz conducted by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour last month found that more than half of all TFW employers were in violation of the provinces Employment Standards Act.

[Photo Credit: RCMP]