BC firms using overseas recruiters told to watch for illegal charges being imposed on workers.
BC employers turning to countries such as the Philippines for much-needed labour have to beware of recruiting firms that charge foreign workers placement fees, in some cases as much as $10,000, that contravene provincial labour laws.
Employers in other provinces have already been blindsided by such fees, resulting in major recruitment setbacks and even charges. The black-and-white rules in BC prohibit the collection of placement fees from employees, "directly or indirectly." And while the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration, which governs the posting of the country's workers overseas, allows recruitment agencies there to collect a placement fee equivalent to one month's salary for land-based (as opposed to sea-based) employees, it states clearly that this is not allowed "in countries where laws prohibit collection of fees from workers."
In reality, however, most recruitment agencies in the Philippines charge these placement fees across the board, making it very difficult for a BC recruiting company, or its partners, to really know what fees may be charged down the recruiting chain unless it aggressively pursues the issue. A B.C. Labour Ministry spokeswoman, Linda O'Connor, said that while the ministry cannot go after those charging placement fees outside the province's boundaries, it would pursue deductions made for these via the paycheques of overseas employees working in BC. She added that because the laws of various jurisdictions might be involved, each case would have to be reviewed individually.
Judging from lessons being learned in BC companies need to be wary of pitfalls like this instead of just focusing on how to get through the application process for foreign workers so that holes in the roster can be plugged as quickly as possible, said Tom Steele, a Vancouver-based consultant who helps BC companies source overseas workers. "People are stressed and trying to run their businesses. Along comes someone who says, 'I can find you employees and there is no cost to you, it's free.' This is appealing, but employers need to make themselves familiar with how the entire process works."
In January, a Maple Leaf Foods' pork plant in Manitoba shut down its program to bring almost 200 workers from China when it discovered that its first batch of 61 recruits couldn't keep up with subsidized rent payments.
As it turned out, the workers were struggling to pay off hefty placement fees of about $10,000 charged to them by a China-based recruiting company that had worked in partnership with a Vancouver-based immigration consultant to source these workers for Maple Leaf. At the time, Maple Leaf emphasized that there was no allegation of criminal wrongdoing, but the company terminated its relationship with the Vancouver consultant, dropped its China program and said it was considering some way to help the debt-saddled workers.
BC companies looking for workers or recruiting partners in the Philippines face an uphill battle when it comes to trying to figure out if any placement fees are being charged. To help, the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration has a blacklist of agencies it has investigated and it posts thousands of registered agencies. Even most of these, however, charge placement fees. In fact, many recruiting agencies in BC just accept that all agencies in the Philippines charge placement fees and that it is a matter of assessing how much and when these fees are charged, and then perhaps negotiating for the employer to cover these costs.
One BC recruiter, however, has discovered a little-known association of about eight Philippines-based recruiters who, about a decade ago, realized a common philosophy against placement fees of any sort and banded together as the Association for Professionalism in Overseas Employment, or ASPROE. "We got together on our own because we felt that any foreign company that would not spend money to get particular skills wouldn't be a good employer anyway," said Fe Palileo, president of Manila-based Prime Manpower, which is a member of the association. Palileo offered one sniff-test. Recruiting agencies in the Philippines who charge too little for their services (for example, below a range of between $1,000 to $1,500 US), are likely to be passing or sharing the cost of business by charging employee candidates a fee. The math is a hint, but she added, in a telephone interview, that "in the end, if you really want to find out, you only have to ask the candidates themselves" even if they will often only speak anonymously.
Excerpted with permission. "Placement Fees Prompt Warning" by Joanne Lee-Young, The Vancouver Sun, August 13, 2007.
