Sarah Molyneaux Tackles Migrant Workers’ Rights for the Lawyer’s Daily

Sarah’s latest article at the Lawyer’s Daily covers a recent lawsuit by migrant workers. As Sarah explains in the piece, Maila Ceguerra, Lourdes dela Pena, Jesse Veneranda and Marisol Bobadilla have filed an Ontario small claims court action against recruitment agency Link4Staff Inc and their former employer Sharon Mushroom Farm. In addition to this civil action, Laxman Marsonia, the farm owner, faces human trafficking and misrepresentation-related charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Not content to leave it to the Courts, the migrant worker plaintiffs are calling on the government to address the underlying issues which facilitated the abuse they allege at work. Read Sarah’s piece here and consider signing the workers’ petition here.

As Sarah explains in the article, thousands of seasonal migrant workers are employed on Ontario farms each year. These workers are typically in Canada on closed or employer-specific work visas that leave them vulnerable to abuse – a problem that can be exacerbated by economic factors and a lack of familiarity with the Canadian legal system, local labour and employment rights, and limited English or French language skills as well as by the workers’ isolation in remote and rural areas.