A passage from India - Recruited, then stiffed, drivers charge
By KATHLEEN MARTENS from The Winnipeg Sun
(original link: http://www.winnipegsun.com/Business/2006/01/18/1399599-sun.html)
So they signed on to work for Saveway Trucking in Winnipeg, with two of the drivers leaving their wives and children behind. They planned to work and send money home because the pay would quadruple their wages, they said.
Upon arriving here in March 2005 they were immediately put behind the wheel. Soon their paycheques became irregular, they told the Sun.
JUST A 'BLIP'
Puzzled, they kept driving. When they asked questions, they claim the company's owner, John Peters, told them it was a temporary financial blip.
By October 2005, they said Saveway stopped paying them altogether.
Peters, who has operated Saveway for nine years, did not respond to the Sun's requests for an interview.
The Indian drivers, who are in their 20s and 30s, said they were afraid to go to the authorities. They said they were worried they would be deported, on the advice of the Toronto-based immigration consultant who placed the newspaper ad and handled their entry into the country. They said he told them they would be sent home if they stopped working.
"We had no money to pay groceries or rent," one said.
"We didn't say we wouldn't work. We wanted to be paid," added another in an interview from his lawyer's downtown office.
They said Saveway sent them on trip after trip -- across Canada and into the United States. One driver said he was told to pick up a load of Alberta meat and deliver it to Florida with only $100 US for food and gas.
"It was a joke," he recalled.
Strangers in India, their struggles in Winnipeg brought them together, and they shared an apartment to reduce expenses. But their savings started to dwindle.
When one driver had to stop sending money back to his family he felt like a failure.
"I fell into a deep depression," he said as he recounted his feelings with the other drivers at his side.
"I never knew this would happen in Canada," he added. "I was shocked."
Ken Zaifman, a veteran immigration lawyer, has taken up their cause and helped them get jobs with another trucking firm in Winnipeg.
Zaifman, who has rescued other foreign workers in dire circumstances, moved quickly to secure the status of the drivers' one-year work permits. He also notified provincial and federal immigration officials about his clients' situation.
"We can trust him," one of the drivers said of Zaifman, who is well-known in the city's ethnic communities.
"Now we are in safe hands," said another.
Zaifman said there is no point in suing cash-strapped Saveway, which is operating under a "proposal to creditors." Court documents show the company owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in supplies, services and fees -- during the time it hired the drivers.
Zaifman estimates his clients are owed $50,000 in back pay and travel expenses.
"On the promise of being paid, they kept going back," he said, adding he is considering legal action against the immigration consultant.
"It's not like they're an indentured servant ... with no rights."
The drivers said they borrowed money from family members and friends to buy their plane tickets and fees charged by the immigration consultant. One of the drivers said he feels sick he fell behind in the loan.
"If they're subdued it's because they are still vulnerable," Zaifman said of his clients' quiet demeanour. "They are still here on a temporary basis."
Despite their bad experience, the drivers want Zaifman to help them settle permanently in Canada and bring their immediate family members over.