UTGB Vol 5.pdf - Robson Hall Faculty of Law

68 Underneath the Golden Boy
a work permit through the Live in Caregiver Program, a federal government
immigration program 69 that offers foreign citizens the opportunity to apply to be
permanent residents of Canada after having completed two years of work as a
caregiver in an employer's home. The live..in requirement is mandatory,
meaning that domestic workers are often isolated and, in some cases, subjected
to sexual harassment and assault. 70
Section 2 of the Domestic Workers Regulation defines a "domestic worker" as "an
employee who is employed as a domestic worker in a private family home and is
paid by a member of the family; and employed for more than 24 hours per week
in the home." This group of workers is protected by some provisions of the Code
(although they are not entitled to be paid for any hours they work in excess of
12 per day 71 ). However, s. 4 of Minimum Wages and Working Conditions
Regulation states that a domestic worker who works less than 24 hours per week
for the same employer is exempt from Part 2 of the Code (minimum standards)
except for Division 9 (maternity and parental leave) and Division 14
(employment of children and adolescents). 72 This means that legislative
protection as basic as minimum wage, maximum hours of work, overtime pay,
vacation and holiday provisions, and termination of employment provisions do
not apply to domestic workers who work less than 24 hours per week for the
same employer. She is left to negotiate and enforce her own employment
contract without the protections of the Code.
Even those domestic workers who work more than 24 hours per week for one
employer are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and a failure to enforce their
rights. Miriam Elvir, a former domestic worker, a member ofL'Association pour
la Defense Des Droits du Personnel Domestique, and a nominee to the Quebec
Labour Standards Board, writes that "[u]npaid salaries, or lack of payment for
overtime, are the main problems home caregivers encounter." 73 For example, in
(Ottawa: Status of Women Canada, 2000), online: Status of Women Canada at 20.
69
The website for the Live-in Caregiver Program can be found at .
7 ° For example, in Guzman v. T, [1997] B.C.C.H.R.D. No. 1, a domestic worker was awarded
$6 500 in damages for a human rights complaint when her employers did nothing to stop
their teenage son from sexually harassing her.
71
Section 4 of the Domestic Workers Regulation provides that "a domestic worker who works
more than 11 hours in a day is deemed to work 12 hours in that day."
n The amended Code and Regulation have lowered to 12 the minimum number of hours a
domestic worker needs work to claim the protection of the minimum standards provisions
of the Code. However, the particularly vulnerabilities experienced by this group of workers
mean that further protections are required, as discussed in this section.
73
Miriam Elvir, 4 "The Work at Home is not Recognized': Organizing Domestic Workers in
Montreal" in Abigail B. Bakan and Daiva Stasiulis eds., Not One of the Family: Foreign
Domestic Workers in Canada (Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1997) at 154.