The company cites an employment contract that promises $14.10 per hour for an “average” of 30 hours a week over a 12‑month period totalling 1,560 hours, with $17.55 per hour for work above 44 hours a week. A supplementary document explains that because the 30 hours are averaged over a year, there may be weeks without work, and states that Bolero would pay the difference if a worker ended the year below 1,560 hours.
Bolero has also filed emails to foreign workers stating they do not owe money to the company. One message says “statements of account” issued at the end of employment “do not constitute any sort of ‘debt’ to the company” and are intended only to show “how you were paid, when you were paid, and the amounts you were paid.” Another tells workers that “under no circumstances should anyone ever request you to reimburse or return any portion of your wages in cash.”
The company alleges ESDC “reversed the onus of proof” by presuming intentional and bad‑faith non‑compliance with immigration rules and “made findings of violations where it said it lacked actual information.” The federal government has until the end of May to file its written arguments in the judicial review, the Telegraph‑Journal reports.
Employers using Canada’s TFW Program are facing unprecedented financial penalties and lengthy bans, even as the number of federal inspections has fallen, according to a report.
In the 2018–19 fiscal year, 74 companies were fined a total of $102,250 for breaking TFWP rules, CBC reported, citing data from ESDC. By last fiscal year, the number of sanctioned employers had nearly doubled to 147, while the total value of penalties skyrocketed to $4,882,500 — more than 45 times higher than seven years earlier. At the same time, applications to use the program have dropped: after reaching roughly 150,000 in 2023–24, the number of employer applications has fallen to about 63,000 so far in the current fiscal year.