The Employment Standards Act covers the rights of all B.C. workers, but certain exclusions in certain sections of the Act prevent workers like care workers, farm workers, construction workers, gig workers, and more from accessing these basic rights.
These exclusions unfairly target migrant workers, who are a significant population working in these sectors. We rely on these workers for essential services and they deserve basic rights NOW.
✖ Farm worker
✖ Residential care workers
✖ Night attendants
✖ Live-in home support
✖ Gig workers
✖ Farm workers
✖ Residential care workers
✖ Night attendants
✖ Live-in home support
✖ Residential care workers
✖ Night attendants
✖ Live-in home support
✖ Farm worker
✖ Gig workers
✖ Farm worker
✖ Gig workers
✖ Construction workers
✖ Gig workers
✖ Gig workers
On September 4th, in the ongoing context of extreme repression of migrants in the USA used by the far right to pit workers against each other; and of Bill C2/Bill C12 laying the groundwork to target migrants in Canada en masse; the Premier of BC David Eby made statements to the media where he called to entirely scrap the Temporary Foreign Worker program and blamed Temporary Foreign workers and the program for “filling up our our homeless shelters and our food banks… outpaces our ability to build schools and housing… and results in high youth unemployment”, aligning himself with Pierre Pollievre and other right wing populists that have been scapegoating migrant workers under the guise of addressing real concerns with the system.
Rather than shifting blame to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, we invite the BC government to take a hard look at provincial employment laws that actively worsen conditions of exploitation for migrant workers and address systemic pay inequity at their root instead of blaming victims impacted by these issues.
Sign this petition to demand for basic rights for all, to put an end to policies that grant migrant workers fewer rights and hypermarginalized tiers of workers that our government allows employers to exploit.
Agricultural workers are not currently entitled to overtime pay, nor do they receive hours of work protections. This results in workers working full weeks with no days off, often working 16 hours or more, and receiving no overtime pay.
This is institutional exploitation of agricultural workers; and with most agricultural workers being migrant workers, amounts to racist and discriminatory exploitation.
Construction workers currently have little protections around employment termination, allowing them to be terminated without notice or pay in lieu of notice. This affects migrant workers to a greater degree; as migrant workers on employer-specific work visas are unable to simply find new employment.
Due to the way care worker categorization functions, minor and arbitrary differences in jobs often result in care workers being excluded from overtime protections despite performing essentially the same jobs.
Gig workers are currently excluded from receiving paid sick day protections, forcing gig workers to work when sick or otherwise risk losing pay and losing out on protections that are available to other workers.
Migrant workers are impacted by exclusions in the act the most and are thus exploited more than most other workers. This is despite the fact that migrant workers are part of our communities, part of our workplaces, and have always worked here. They are our domestic care workers, our child-care workers, our neighbours, baristas, farmers, and hotel workers. In our province, migrant workers raise our children, look after our parents, pick our fruit, work our hotels, and over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed how migrant workers have cared for our elderly, staffed our hospitals, cleaned our public spaces, and grown our food.
All the while, they have been heavily exploited by their employers and have too often worked in horrendous conditions in some of the most insecure and exploitative jobs in the province. We have seen workers brought in as temporary foreign workers, and deported before they receive pay. We have seen them unable to access basic rights, health care, proper working conditions, with most being denied the right to a union. As workers and members of the Worker Solidarity Network, we demand an end to this exploitation, and instead demand equal rights for these migrant workers that are crucial components of our communities. One standard for all workers – we demand basic rights for ALL workers NOW!
© 2026 Worker Solidarity Network. | Photos used on our site are by Mike Graeme, Sasha Whittaker, and Michael YC Tseng
