Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Migrant workers in Canada routinely forfeit their rights to a safe workplace. Whether cooking meals at a Denny’s in Williams Lake, or folding laundry at a ski resort in Whistler, migrant workers are assigned more dangerous work, work longer hours, and are at a higher risk of workplace injury. Despite all of the laws on paper that would otherwise protect the health and safety of migrant workers on the job, in practice Canada is a dangerous place for migrant workers to work. For my Master of Laws research, I am identifying gaps in the enforcement of current workplace health and safety laws and making concrete recommendations on how to fill these gaps to make Canada a safer place to work. My focus is the case study of migrant workers in the British Columbian hospitality sector entering Canada under the low-skilled Temporary Foreign Worker Program. This includes workplaces such as hotels, tourist attractions, restaurants, resorts, and entertainment venues. Hospitality workers are in high demand under the program in British Columbia, and many migrant labourers are hired at fast-food restaurants in remote resource industry towns, and in ski resorts. My research on closing gaps in health and safety laws to protect migrant hospitality workers will have direct relevance for closing legal gaps and improving long-term health outcomes for a growing number of vulnerable workers across Canada.