3 Pinays bare abuse in Canada
OTTAWA – Three Filipino immigrants have complained of being mistreated while working for the family of Ruby Dhalla, a Canadian Liberal Party legislator, and the matter has become a political issue here, according to the Toronto Star. The Filipinos were identified as Magdalene Gordo, Richelyn Tongson and Lyle Alvarez, who were hired to care for the mother Dhalla, the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India.
The Filipinos, who were hired under the Canadian government’s Live-in Caregiver Program, complained that they were paid $250 a week for 16-hour days of household chores without pay for overtime. Under the live-in program, nannies may apply for legal status after two years of work, but contract workers who come in through the Temporary Foreign Workers program normally have to return home once their contracts expire. Alvarez, 32, says Dhalla, who represents Brampton-Springdale, promised she would try to help her stay in Canada if she passed a tryout as a housekeeper at the family’s Mississauga home. But the tryout turned out to be long hours on her knees scrubbing and cleaning floors, hand-washing and ironing clothes, and shining dozens of pairs of shoes belonging to the entire family. “I had to polish their shoes… for Miss Ruby and her brother. She has a lot of shoes, downstairs and upstairs.” Alvarez’s complaints were the same as those of Gordo, 31, and Tongson, 37.
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