Last August, Royal Bank recorded $2.24 billion in profit for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 - the largest profit for any Canadian financial institution and a 73 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2011. It appears RBC is determined to maintain its position atop the sector -even if it means bringing foreign workers to Canada, having current staff train their replacements, outsourcing the work offshore to save money and either moving the current staffers to other positions or out entirely.
Canadians are justifiably outraged at what appears, at first glance, to be a clear-cut case of abuse of the country's Temporary Foreign Worker Program, whose primary purpose is to fill acute labour shortages when no Canadians can be found to do the work.
As first reported on Saturday (April 6) in a CBC "Go Public" piece, RBC officials say they hired a U.S.-based contractor, iGate, to contract out the work being done by approximately 45 Canadians in RBC's information technology (IT) department. The workers from India were brought to Canada, apparently under the aforementioned temporary visa program. Adding insult to injury, Canadian workers reported that they had been asked to train their replacements, some saying that they had been told the program was a "pilot project" that might be expanded to other departments.
Gord Nixon, RBC CEO, said in a radio interview on Tuesday (April 9), and reported in the National Post, that the bank places a high priority on the hiring of Canadians and that it fully intends to find other jobs for the 45 workers. The office of the minister of Human Resource and Skills Development Canada says it is looking into the allegation that RBC, or the contractor, have abused the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. IGate officials say they are in full compliance with the law.
Outsourcing -which has been a growing trend worldwide -is not the problem. The federal government's handling of a program that's meant to help fill labour shortages, and instead being used (apparently) as a vehicle to displace Canadian workers - that's the problem.
In light of this, we just have one request: Please be nice to local RBC employees when you go in to move your account elsewhere. It's not their fault.
-David Burke
