May 6, 2009

Canadian Natural Resources creates trust fund for Chinese workers

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

A major oilsands company has created a multi-million dollar trust fund for more than 100 Chinese temporary foreign workers, who were shorted several paycheques

“What happened is we found out that they (the temporary workers) were not paid from April to July 2007,” said Chris Chodan, public relations officer with the Alberta Ministry of Employment and Immigration.

“Even though CNRL (Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.) had no obligation to make these payments, they have provided $3.17 million to the Ministry of Employment and Immigration for distribution to workers.”

Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company (SSEC) is a state-owned oil company from China. CNRL hired SSEC Canada Ltd., the Canadian arm of Sinopec, to work on the construction of the Horizon Oil Sands project.

According to Chodan, an investigation by the Alberta ministry revealed that 132 Chinese workers didn’t get their pay and the workers returned to China almost two years ago.

“Prior to this, we had no idea these workers had not been paid,” said Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) regional director for Fort McMurray Wayne Prins. “We keep track of payments through the remittance employers send to the union on behalf of the employee for benefits and RRSPs.”

He said that during this time period all remittance payments were made to the union, as if they had processed their payroll.

“They (SSEC) did all the calculations for hours worked and sent us money, but never pushed the button to send the money for payment of salaries,” said Prins.

“They made every effort to look like everything was done properly, but didn’t process the money through their payroll.”

Chodan said CNRL wasn’t obligated to pay the workers because SSEC Canada was supposed to do that.

In fact, CNRL had already paid the wages to the Canadian division of the Chinese company.

“We have the money in a trust fund and are identifying and verifying who these individuals are,” said Chodan.

“We have not made any payments to anyone yet, but we are in the process of finding out who they are and contacting them.”

The trust fund will be held in an account until 2017, so the ministry can have enough time to locate the workers and give them their unpaid earnings.

The amount of payment that each worker is owed will vary depending on the number of hours worked and the wage rate for specific trades. However, Prins said that with overtime some of these workers should have made $10,000 a month.

The Alberta government is trying to collect the wages owed from SSEC.

“If Employment and Immigration is reimbursed by SSEC Canada, we will payback CNRL,” said Chodan.

Under Alberta laws, the government could have taken punitive action against SSEC, but no such action has been taken.

Chodan said he didn’t know if legal action is being considered.

In a separate claim last month, CLAC and a Chinese temporary foreign worker on the Horizon Oil Sands construction project sued SSEC to recover wages that were allegedly siphoned off without the worker’s knowledge or consent.

The investigation into the workers’ wages stemmed from interviews conducted after the death of two workers.

Welder Ge Genbao, 27, and electrical engineer Lui Hongliang, 33, were killed on April 27, 2007.

The foreign workers were welding the wall structure inside a massive storage tank when the roof support structure collapsed onto them.

Fifty-three safety charges have been laid by the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety against CNRL, Sinopec and SSEC.

Despite the checkered history of SSEC Canada Ltd., the parent company Sinopec is becoming a major player in the province’s oil industry.

On April 1, SinoCanada, a subsidiary of Sinopec, bought 10 per cent interest in the Northern Lights oil sand project from Paris-based Total E&P Canada Ltd.

As a consequence, SinoCanada and Total Canada each own 50 per cent of the Northern Lights Partnership.

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