Kanwar Walia Farms, registered as numbered company 1254586 BC Ltd., has been ordered to pay $435k for breaching migrant worker laws in the largest penalty of its kind ever issued in the province. Kanwar Walia and Rajvinder Dosanjh said the property at 18164 40 Avenue, Surrey, BC, V3Z 1C5 was purchased in 2015. For eight years the property had produced a blueberry crop according to the owners K. Walia, G. Walia, H. Walia and R. Dosanjh.
Violations Found:
- Code 5: The employer didn’t show up for a meeting with the inspector, to answer questions and give documents the inspector asked for. Provision: 209.4(1)(a)
- Code 6: The employer didn’t give the inspector the documents they asked for. Provision: 209.4(1)(b)
- Code 15: The employer was not actively engaged in the business that the foreign national was hired to work for (aside from live-in caregivers). Provision: 209.2(1)(a)(i) or 209.3(1)(a)(i)
18164 40 Avenue, Surrey, BC, V3Z 1C5
Inspectors found the company wasn’t actively engaged in the business foreign nationals were hired to work in. A fine of this size indicates either severe abuses or breaches of the rights of many workers. The penalty to Kanwar Walia Farms is the second largest ever handed out. There are few details. The largest penalties for breaching migrant worker laws come following major infractions, including physical, sexual and financial abuse, or reprisals.
B.C. companies have racked up over a third of all federal penalties for breaching migrant worker protection laws.
In 2023, Kanwar Walia’s numbered company was given positive assessments to hire at least 34 migrant workers as general labourers. Assessments also gave a green light to hire two more foreign nationals that year.
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https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/employers-non-compliant.html |
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