Tribunal determines workers' complaint to Ottawa 'at the very least' influenced their termination
The Manitoba Labour Board has found that the Best Western Thompson Hotel & Suites violated the rights of three temporary foreign workers by firing them after they reported alleged mistreatment to federal authorities.
The hotel dismissed Jamaicah Malindatu, Abbygail Enriquez, and John Rafael Maravilla—all from the Philippines—in retaliation for contacting Ottawa’s tip line for abuse within the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), according to the Winnipeg Free Press.
The ruling has not yet been made public, according to the report.
Employers must tread carefully after discrimination complaints, according to experts.
Emotional abuse, surveillance, verbal reprimands
Malindatu, Enriquez and Maravilla had been working as housekeepers at the Thompson hotel on closed work permits. They filed complaints with federal officials in April 2024, citing workplace mistreatment, including emotional abuse, surveillance via security cameras, and verbal reprimands over hotel radios, according to the Free Press report.
Following a call from a federal government staffer to the hotel on April 15, 2024, the workers received letters of direction accusing them of misconduct, including failing to meet cleaning quotas and challenging managerial authority. Within two weeks, all three were dismissed.
The Labour Board concluded that the timing of the letters and dismissals strongly suggested a retaliatory motive. “The issues raised in (the manager’s) letters of direction seemingly were not borne out by the evidence,” the decision reads. For example, the alleged room-cleaning quota of 16 rooms per day was not documented until after the dismissals.
“The board finds that the timing of the letters of direction and the letters of termination and the stated reasons therefore are more than coincidental,” the ruling stated. The tribunal determined that the workers’ complaint to the federal government “at the very least” influenced their termination, breaching the Labour Relations Act.
The hotel’s manager, Ethel Timbang—who also serves as president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce—did not respond to interview requests. Best Western also declined to comment by print deadline, the Free Press reported.
Non-compliance by hotel
A separate review by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) found the hotel to be non-compliant on three counts, but categorized the violations as “compliant with justification,” meaning they were deemed unintentional and no further action was taken.
After their dismissal, the three workers successfully applied for open vulnerable work permits, which allowed them to seek new employment elsewhere in Canada. All are now working in different jobs, according to the report.
Previously, Tomoya Obokata, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery said that the TFWP “serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights”.
Grant migrant workers permanent residency upon their arrival in Canada — that’s the first recommendation of a previous report on how to fix the problems with the country’s TFWP.
