Migrant domestic workers have been coming to Canada without full immigration status - which means without full rights - since 1955. Sixty-six years of exclusion and exploitation. And for sixty six years they have been leading the fight for justice.

Today is International Domestic Workers Day - a day to mark decades of organizing to win respect and rights for those who do the in-home labour, and care for children, sick and the elderly. 

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers of the International Labour Organization (ILO Convention 189). It requires countries to ensure equal rights for domestic workers. Canada refuses to sign this convention or implement it.
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And so today we reflect on our histories:

• Black Caribbean women, along with many other workers, led the fight to create a path to permanent residence (PR) for migrant care workers in the 1980s.
• In the 1990s, workers’ struggles forced the removal of a number of exclusionary requirements, but care workers were forced to live in employer homes.
• In 2010, migrant care workers won the Juana Tejada law, removing the requirement for a second medical exam to get PR.
• In 2014, care workers won an end to the live-in requirement. But a cap of 2,750 per year was put on PR applications, and unfair requirements for English and education were put in place.
• In 2017, careworkers led the fight to remove medical inadmissibility rules, which led to them being significantly reduced, though they remain in place.
• In 2019, careworkers won an Interim Pathway to allow many workers in Canada to get PR without the exclusionary requirements introduced in 2017.
• And during COVID-19, migrant careworkers are organizing across the country for vaccine access, mobility and immigration and labour rights. 

Migrant women hold up Canada: Temporary foreign workers make up 10% of private household workers in Canada. Thousands of undocumented mostly racialized women are doing in-home domestic work. Thousands more migrant women are working in long-term care homes and as personal support workers. 

But immigration laws force care workers into abusive jobs. Many careworkers are tied to their employers, dependent on them for healthcare and housing, and separated from their families for years. According to our last survey, 1 in 3 workers we spoke to were laid off during COVID-19 but are not allowed to work anywhere else.

Even those who complete the impossible PR requirements are made to wait years to hear a decision on their applications. Many of us signed petitions and delivered them on May 9th. As a result the government promised to process 6,000 out of 12,000 applications in the backlog by the end of this year. That means half have to wait another year and half, stuck with potentially abusive employers and without open work permits. 

Worse still, no new PR applications for childcare workers are being accepted in the regular stream this year. The program’s arbitrary cap of 2,750 applications per year was reached on April 30th, and care workers must now wait until next year to apply.

Those who fall out of status because of these impossible requirements or are in undocumented care work are unable to assert their rights at work and are shut out of basic services like health care and income support. 

The government’s new PR program for essential workers that opened in May allows some care workers to apply. But those who have lost their status, those without work or without English language test results are excluded. ​

But migrant care workers are continuing the struggle, join in! On June 20th, find an action near you or organize one in your community: https://migrantrights.ca/june20/

• VANCOUVER: June 20, 10am, CBC Plaza.
• TORONTO: June 20, 1pm, IRB, 74 Victoria Street, March to City Hall
• SUDBURY: June 20, 1pm, MP Marc Serrée Constituency office. 2914 Hwy 69 N, Unit 1, Val Caron
• ONLINE: Take a photo with your family and post a message to Justin Trudeau: Unite All Families! Status for All!. Make sure to tag @MigrantRightsCA
• IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: Put up posters and distribute pamphlets.

Credit: Migrant Rights Network 

​Kumusta na? Vaccinated kana ba?
Are you still worried? Skeptical about the vaccine?
If you know somebody who is undocumented and isn't vaccinated, there is help.
Tara kwentuhan tayo!!!
You can ask questions, you can even start a topic you want.
Hear our stories, be inspired.
You can be an inspiration too!!
This Sunday na, June 13 @11 am
See you!

Join us!!!
Let's support each other. 
Share your stories, your worries.
Let's relax and do yoga!
This Sunday February 28 @ 1:00pm virtual session
We give 20$ lunch subsidy 
Please register at [email protected]

Our upcoming free Educational Webinars for January to March 2021.  Please join us and learn.
​

Hey everyone!
You are all invited to an #onlinekwentuhan on Friday, December 11, 2020 at 8:00 PM
Please REGISTER by sending an email to [email protected]

Please note that our virtual workshop will be moved to November 7th, 2020, Saturday, at 12pm to 2pm.
​Sorry for the inconvenience.

CCESO successfully held an online workshop which was attended by Care workers from Ontario and Vancouver. Among the questions that our facilitators answered are listed below. Please feel free to send us a message for more information.
 
EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

1. I am still working for my employer, but because of the crisis, I am now working long hours and I am not being paid overtime or for all of the hours I’m working. I am very lucky to still have my job, but I’m scared if I tell my employer about my rights, I will be laid off. What can I do? 
2. My employer is threatening me that if I leave the house to buy groceries or go for a walk, I will be fired. I have been locked up in their house for months. What are my rights in this situation? Why can my employer leave the house, but I can’t? 
3. I want to leave my employer because I am working long hours with only 1 day off. My employer is very demanding and sometimes even the children are verbally abusive. I have been in this job since Sept 2019 and my work permit will expire on Aug 2021. My health is deteriorating but I'm afraid to resign. What should I do?
4. If my employer is mistreating me, what should I do? (i.e. document everything!)
   1. Explain the different areas of abuse (i.e. financial, 
5. Do I have access to sick days or emergency leave? 
6. My employer fired me during COVID-19, what are my rights?
7. Is it legal for the employer to pay our overtime hours with rest days/hours instead of money? What should we do if they are demanding this?
8. I work for a close relative  and she said that our contract is only on paper so she does not pay me regularly. Is this legal? I want to leave because they treat me like a maid

1.  My employer was away for two weeks and I was left alone in the house. They say that was already considered my vacation because I was not doing child care for the children. Am I still entitled for a vacation pay if I want to go away?

 
INCOME SUPPORTS 

1. Can I get income support if I am laid off due to COVID-19? (i.e. new Canada Response Benefit). What income support can I access now that CERB is over? 
2. My employer reduced my salary, but not my hours of work. They forced me to collect CERB even though I am still working full-time hours for them. Is this right?

MINIMUM WAGE

1. If I am receiving minimum wage, should my wages go up after October 1st?