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Bank hardly alone but will experience cause employers to re-evaluate tactics?
HAVING A disgruntled employee vent his frustrations in a national CBC broadcast did no favours for RBC recently. David Moreau, who works in IT, claimed he was among a group of employees in Toronto who were being terminated after they trained a group of temporary foreign workers to do their jobs.
RBC's initial response to the CBC story came from Zabeen Hirji, CHRO, who said it was outsourcing provider iGate that was supplying the workers for the transition and "moving your processes and operations to other suppliers is a business practice both within Canada and globally that is very wellestablished."
But the situation garnered further attention, with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) saying it was "unacceptable" if RBC was replacing Canadian workers by contracting with iGate, which was filling some of the roles with foreign workers.
"The purpose of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is to fill acute labour needs when Canadians are not available for the work required," it said.
There was also a backlash from consumers and calls for boycotts. A group of union pension plans in British Columbia warned it would withdraw funds invested or managed by RBC if the bank did not stop using temporary foreign workers to replace Canadians.
"If RBC doesn't get that Canadians are furious about this and change course, then we will be forced to relocate over $1 billion in investments with another firm that wants to build our economy in Canada and keep jobs here," said Lee Loftus, business manager of the BC Insulators Union.
Responding to the growing controversy, RBC CEO Gord Nixon emphasized in a CBC interview that offshoring certain jobs is part of doing business.
"This is not nearly the story that it's been made out to be but it's very difficult to get that message across to the Canadian public," he said. "That's how you have to run a global company if you want to compete,...