Several maritime union leaders claim shipping-related employers may be misusing Ottawa’s foreign worker programs, prompting concerns of wage depreciation and safety challenges in the industry.
“One of the challenges is that the wages that are being offered are lower than any Canadian seafarer, or anyone who would work on a vessel would accept,” said Eric McNeely, provincial president of the BC Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union, whose members staff BC Ferries vessels.
In a letter to the federal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour dated Jan. 30, McNeely and four other maritime union leaders suggested that a loophole in Ottawa’s temporary foreign worker program is allowing shipping-related companies to justify hiring foreign workers.
Typically, in order to obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment that successfully shows that hiring a foreign worker is required, a company must prove a Canadian does not exist to take the job.
Companies, say the unions, are using what’s deemed a loosely defined “prevailing wage rate” for positions, but one that doesn’t fairly apply to the additional demands of similar work at sea.
For example, companies may use the prevailing wage for a cook across Canada for an on-board cook position, one where the individual would also be responsible for additional safety procedures.
“A cook could make about the same at [a fast-food restaurant] as they would aboard the ship. So that's a problem. And what that really does is reduce the interest for future mariners in British Columbia to consider shifting as a viable career path,” said McNeely.
Companies are also only required to give five business days of notice for a position, and if they don’t fill it, they can justify hiring a foreign worker.
Another concern, unions say, is the “web of relationships” between ship owners, operators and charterers.
By way of example, the letter states, “when Company C (the charterer) is a unionized employer, bound by a collective agreement which sets specific wages for employees performing the relevant work …Company C could secure potentially significant cost savings by chartering a vessel owned and/or operated by a company with no Canadian employees. If the vessel operator does not have to pay collective agreement wages, this creates a strong incentive for unionized employers in the maritime sector to ‘contract out.’”
Jason Woods, president of I.L.W.U. Local 400 Marine Section and General Workers, told BIV that B.C. companies are launching subsidiaries not bound by collective agreements, in order to take advantage of the temporary foreign workers’ program.
Woods, who works for Seaspan, said he is concerned that the burgeoning LNG industry will employ more foreigners and pay lower wages.
Seaspan has launched three new LNG bunker ships to serve the new terminal on the Fraser River, via Seaspan Energy.
Records show Seaspan utilizes the program for shipbuilding, although it’s unclear if the new LNG ships will employ foreign workers.
“These are what should be the next generation of well-paying jobs for Canadian families,” said Woods.
In response to the letter, Seaspan Energy president Harly Penner told BIV that his company follows Transport Canada policy.
“Unfortunately, as there is a global mariner shortage, no applicants with the required blend of skills, experience and certifications applied” to the jobs in question, he said.
Seaspan Energy has its boats registered in Panama and utilizes the Coasting Trade Act, which regulates foreign ships.
“Without operating under the Coasting Trade Act, we would not have the ability to crew our vessels and meet the safety requirements,” Penner said.
While foreign workers are bound to collective agreements where they exist, McNeely said the reciprocal foreign training programs will erode industry wages over time as foreign workers take lesser pay at employers not covered by agreements.
McNeely estimates upwards of 15 per cent of the workers on BC Ferries vessels are foreign. Before 2020, he estimated that foreign workers made up less than one per cent of staff.
He added that in the case of BC Ferries, workers are coming in via reciprocal agreements from over one dozen countries that have worker standards that were approved by Transport Canada.
BC Ferries declined an interview but provided a statement concerning the letter. It told BIV its company is part of a global maritime industry that faces an acute shortage of mariners.
As such, its foreign mariner workforce hired through reciprocal agreements is about eight per cent.
Nevertheless, the company ensures “all vessels meet Transport Canada’s rigorous safety regulations before they sail.”
It also noted its licensed mariner headcount increased 6.4 per cent from 2023-24, and that it agreed to raise wages. BC Ferries cited an 18 per cent wage increase whereas McNeely said some workers received 12 per cent, retroactive to 2023.
BIV asked the ministry if it was in receipt of the letter and had addressed the union’s concerns.
While not specifying any of the particular concerns, a ministry spokesperson stated that, through Canada’s Labour Market Impact Assessment, the “legitimacy of the employer, the genuineness of the job offer, the compliance with program requirements (including prevailing wage)” are assessed by Service Canada officers, who verify “whether the hiring of the foreign worker will help fill labour shortages and that the employer made reasonable efforts to recruit Canadians … and permanent residents for the available positions.”
If concerns are raised, the ministry said, further analysis is done “to ensure that the domestic workforce is not being displaced.”
Marine consultant Bob Beadell of Victoria-based Invicta Marine Ltd. said much of the issues raised by the unions are rooted in a global shortage of marine workers.
“The future recruitment and retention of domestic seafarers is an existential issue for the industry,” Beadell told BIV in an email.
Beadell said hiring from overseas is a short-term remedy for the likes of BC Ferries. A business model he said is unsustainable.
Beadell added that the reciprocal agreements “rely on the rigorous enforcement of training and certification standards in the reciprocal countries.”
He said the European Union has already identified deficiencies Canada has not.
“The perceived threat of lower wages is real” and will enhance the problems in the long term, Beadell said.
Joining McNeely and Woods in their concerns, via the letter, were Lana Payne, national president for Unifor; Michael Given, president of the Seafarers’ International Union of Canada; and Mark Boucher, national president of the Canadian Merchant Service Guild.
