CIMM – Annex A: Application of Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) and Bans for Non-Compliant Employers – November 07, 2023

Administrative Monetary Penalties

• From the inception of the International Mobility Program (IMP) in 2015, to September 30, 2023, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has imposed 138 Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs), totaling over $670,000.
• Of the 138 AMPs, 127 pertained specifically to working conditions, totaling over $640,000.
• For the AMPs issued under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), we would defer to Economic and Social Development Canada (ESDC) as they oversee employer compliance inspections under the TFWP.

Program Bans

• Any employer who has received a ban as part of their consequence for non-compliance under either the IMP or the TFWP is ineligible to use either program until the period of their ban has elapsed.
• Further to a program ban, an employer may be ineligible to access the IMP or TFWP as a result of non-payment of an AMP.
• As of September 30, 2023:
  • 310 employers are ineligible to access either the IMP or the TFWP due to non-payment of their AMP.
  • One (1) employer has received a permanent ban as a result of an inspection under the IMP or the TFWP.
  • 18 employers have active program bans as a direct result of an inspection under the IMP or the TFWP.

Compliant with Justification

• Since program inception in 2015 until the end of the 2022-2023 fiscal year, 2,777 Compliant with Justification decisions were rendered by IRCC. Of the 2,777, 1,463 of the Compliant with Justification decisions pertained specifically to working conditions.
• From program inception in fiscal year 2015-2016 to September 30, 2023, more than $940,000 in compensation has been paid to foreign workers as a result of employers not providing the same wages, occupation, or working conditions as set out in the offer of employment. In total, including all program conditions (for example, the requirement for employers to pay wages to foreign workers if they are forced to isolate under the Emergencies and Quarantine Act), more than $1. Million in compensation has been paid to foreign workers as a result of inspections under the IMP. These figures do not include other types of compensation made to foreign workers in forms that are not easily quantifiable (such as insurance coverage).

Tips and Vulnerable Workers

• The Temporary Foreign Worker abuse tip-line through which members of the public can submit information related to potential abuse suffered by a foreign worker under the TFWP or the IMP, is managed solely by ESDC.
• These tips, which can be submitted anonymously, are directed by ESDC to IRCC for action if the foreign worker is employed under an IMP work permit. A single destination for tips (ESDC’s tip-line) ensures that anyone with information related to the abuse of a foreign worker is able to give this information to the Government of Canada without navigating the intricacies of different immigration programs. Most of the tips IRCC receives are from ESDC.
• Issuance of an Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers (OWP-V) triggers a referral to either the IMP or TFWP employer compliance regimes dependent on which program the foreign worker was hired under, and results in an inspection under the related (IMP of TFWP) program.
• Between fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2022-2023, IRCC issued a total of 366,580 employer-specific work permits under the IMP. IRCC started issuing OWP-Vs in 2019, and up to September 15, 2023, 3,845 OWP-V’s have been issued to vulnerable workers, 579 of which were issued to workers hired under the IMP. IRCC has initiated 125 IMP inspections thus far as a result of issuance of those 579 OWP-V’s.
• To note, the total number of employer compliance inspections initiated under the IMP triggered by the issuance of an OWP-V is lower than the total number of OWP-V’s issued, as there could be multiple OWP-V’s issued to foreign workers working for the same employer (each inspection is directed towards one employer but can include multiple foreign workers). Additionally, there may be an inspection already ongoing with that employer to which the concerns received in the OWP-V referral would be added.
• IRCC also receives and assesses tips received from media reporting, the public, and voluntary disclosures by employers^{Footnote 1}.
• IRCC has carried out 371 inspections under the IMP as a result of tips received by the Department between fiscal year 2020/2021 and September 30, 2023. Although IRCC receives a high volume of tips, the majority are found to not be program related or contain information not relevant to compliance under the IMP. As a result, the number of inspections is lower than the number of tips received.

  Number of employer-specific work permits issued under the IMP

  FY 19/20	FY 20/21	FY 21/22	FY 22/23	Total
  101,595	71,940	83,386	109,659	366,580

  Number of tips received from each source

  Source	FY 20/21	FY 21/22	FY 22/23	Total
  ESDC	212	237	517	966
  IRCC	59	75	207	341
  OtherFootnote *	164	64	150	378
  Table Notes Table Note * Other sources include, for example, Media, allegations from the public, voluntary disclosures by employers, etc. Data available from FY 20/21 only, due to data limitation. Return to table note * referrer