Advocacy group calls for worker trust fund after N.B. company’s $1M fine

A crate of lobsters is shown in Halifax on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Estefania Montes says she couldn’t afford groceries while working for a New Brunswick shellfish processing company in 2023.

“When I was working for the company, I spent money, I didn’t make any money,” she said in an interview through a Spanish translator. “Those times that I was not working, I used to call my family back in Mexico to send me money to buy food.”

On Sept. 17, the federal government fined the company, Bolero Shellfish Processing Inc., $1 million for failing to comply with the rules intended to protect temporary foreign workers like her. It also banned the company from using the program for 10 years.

In listing its reasons for the fine, the federal government says Bolero broke federal or provincial hiring laws, offered pay or working conditions that were inferior to the listed offer, and did not do enough to ensure the workplace was free of abuse.

Bolero’s parent company, Sogelco International, said it had just learned about the federal government’s decision to impose a fine and ban it from the program and that it disputed the allegations.

“Bolero Shellfish categorically rejects the conclusions of the federal government, which do not reflect the reality of its practices nor its commitment to the well-being of employees under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” the company told The Canadian Press in a statement. “Bolero Shellfish will challenge the federal government’s decision in court.”

A migrant workers advocacy group says the fines levied against Bolero and other companies should go toward compensating their employees.

“They are the ones who are being traumatized, abused, but they don’t see a single penny out of these fines,” said Niger Saravia of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. The group, he said, is calling on the federal government to use the fines to create a trust fund workers can access.

“Because a penalty to an employer without a reparation for the workers, the cycle is not complete,” he said.

Saravia said workers at Bolero were given contracts in 2023 that promised them a minimum 30 hours of work a week. Saravia also said workers were required to pay rent for accommodations provided by the employer.

But the hours eventually dropped, leaving workers struggling to pay their employer for the rent, he says.

In a news release, the workers group also described a “forced debt scheme,” where workers were paid the promised 30 hours, but in cases where they worked less, they were allegedly told they would have to pay back the difference later or work unpaid labour.

Employment and Social Development Canada recently said it collected about $4.9 million in fines for non-compliance in the 2024-25 fiscal year, compared with $2 million in 2023-24.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday that the fines show the government is serious about catching rule-breakers.

“What I think these fines show is that the program of enforcement is actually working,” she said. “We’re catching those bad actors, and the real focus in our program is prevention of this kind of abuse going forward.”

Hajdu said the fines collected go into general revenue -- not back to workers -- but points out that the government gives funding to migrant support groups that can help workers take legal action.

Saravia says the practices described by Bolero workers are not unusual, and that fines and inspections aren’t enough to curb mistreatment.

He says the best action would be to grant permanent resident status to migrant workers, making it easier for them to denounce abuse, change employers and access government programs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.