Mac’s Convenience Stores (now Circle K) and B.C. recruiters used ‘outright lies’ to charge 880 migrants up to $8K for jobs that never existed. The operation has been found liable in a class action lawsuit.
Mac’s used three Surrey-based consultant companies to provide temporary foreign workers for stores across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. Overseas Immigration Services Inc. and Overseas Career and Consulting Services Ltd. operated as a single entity to charge them illegal fees in exchange for the promise of a job in Canada.
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Kuldeep Bansal was principal. (info@overseasimmigration.com) |
According to the B.C. Supreme Court, Mac’s recruited convenience-store staff in Dubai through two firms, Overseas Immigration Services and Trident Immigration Services. Workers paid an initial fee to begin the process, then a second fee of about $6,000 once they held a visa and a signed Mac’s contract.
“What Mac’s wanted to do is bring workers to Canada without any specific intention to employ them, and then when job opportunities came up, they could draw on that pool of workers,” said Quail. “That’s obviously advantageous to Mac’s but also highly exploitative to workers.” “This was the plan all along.” The recruitment eventually relied on blanket labour market impact assessments, a document meant to prove no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available or willing to do a job category.
(communication@couche-tard.com)
Mac’s was intentionally dishonest with the roughly 125 workers who made it to Canada. Mac’s Convenience Stores was a chain of convenience stores in Canada. The company been owned and operated by Alimentation Couche-Tard since 1999. Since 2017, it served as one of Couche-Tard’s two main banners in English-speaking Canada, alongside Circle K. The brand has been phased out in favour of the Circle K banner.
A lawyer for the company said Mac’s is reviewing the decision and has no comment. The defendants in the case have about a month to appeal the decision. Monetary penalties could be in the multi-millions. brian.hannasch@couche-tard.com
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