Migrant workers win lawsuit against Mac's Convenience Stores
B.C. court finds retailer liable for exploiting 880 workers through illegal recruitment fees; up to $8,000 charged per person.
Hundreds of migrant workers have won a class action lawsuit against Mac's Convenience Stores and three B.C. immigration consultant companies over unlawful recruitment fees.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sharon Matthews found that Mac's entered into employment contracts with Surrey-based consultant companies Overseas Immigration Services Inc. and Overseas Career and Consulting Services Ltd. to supply temporary foreign workers for stores across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories.
Roughly 880 migrants paid up to $8,000 each for promised jobs. Only about 125 ever made it to Canada, and almost none secured positions at Mac's stores.
"A lot of people, they paid and they just got ghosted," said Susanna Quail, lawyer for the plaintiffs. In Canada, recruiters are prohibited from charging workers placement fees—employers can hire third-party consultants, but any associated costs must be covered by the company, not workers.
The four lead plaintiffs—two from the Philippines and two from Nepal—were among workers recruited from Dubai at job fairs. Prakash Basyal, from Nepal, was told to pay $2,000 for a promised job as a Mac's cashier. He testified he was using his earnings to support his parents, grandparents, and four siblings back home, and believed coming to Canada would let him sponsor his family.
Mac's had begun working with the consultant in 2012 after struggling to recruit store employees and franchise dealers. The strategy relied on temporary foreign worker program provisions allowing workers to enter for two years while applying for permanent residency. The company's plan, according to court findings, was to bring workers to Canada without specific job intention, then draw on that pool when opportunities arose—a strategy the court found exploitative.