September 24, 2008

Unpaid foreign workers walk off the job at Golden Ears Bridge project

Richard Gilbert

A group of temporary foreign workers from Serbia walked off the job at the Golden Ears bridge construction project, after not being paid by a European sub-contractor.

The Golden Ears Bridge is a six-lane bridge that is under construction across the Fraser River, between Langley and Maple Ridge, B.C.

The new bridge is owned by TransLink, who hired the Golden Crossing General Partnership to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the bridge for $808 million over a 35.5-year period.

The partnership is wholly owned by German-based Bilfinger Berger.

Eighty workers left the jobsite shortly after lunch on Sept. 23 after not being paid by Baulex Projects Ltd.

“Bilfinger Berger is the general contractor on the bridge project and they sub-contracted some of the bridge work to an Eastern European labour broker called Baulex,” said Mark Olsen, business manager with the Construction and Specialized Workers Union 1611.

“This is the first contract that Baulex has had in B.C. and they brought in 80 temporary foreign workers from Serbia. We organized these workers and our business rep just ratified a collective agreement for the crew, which called for a raise retroactive to Aug. 1.”

Olsen said Baulex had their bank accounts frozen by Revenue Canada, for non- remittance of the workers income taxes.

Therefore, even though Bilfinger Berger provided the funds to Baulex to pay the workers, they have not paid been paid for two weeks.

“This could jeopardize their housing because they have not been paid and have no money. We don’t know if they can stay where they are,” he said.

The workers, who come from Belgrade, are now without jobs.

Dean Homewood, business representative for the union, said some of the workers have been in the country for nearly two years working on the project.

Unless their permits can be shifted over to Bilfinger Berger or some other employer, they have to return home.

Homewood, who is working to have the workers put directly on the payroll of Bilfinger Berger, said this is another example of the exploitation of temporary foreign workers.

“The federal government needs to get their act together and help these people out,” said Olsen.

“The biggest reason for these problems is there is no enforcement. No one is helping these guys out except the union that represents them.”

It’s unclear whether or not this problem will have an impact on the overall construction of the project.

The construction project started in June 2006 and is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2009.

Print | Email | Comment