Union warns of possible foreign worker exploitation on St. Pauls Hospital build – BC [Video]

A B.C. trade union is raising concerns about the potential improper use of foreign workers at the St. Paul’s Hospital construction site in Vancouver.

Now in the latter stages of construction, the massive site has seen thousands of tradespeople of all types on the job.

According to Robert Sheck, business manager of the BC Insulators Local 118, the union began looking into the matter after a handful of people doing insulation work at the site started talking last year.

“I’m thinking there’s some water cooler talk might have happened, and they said wait a second here, we’re not making very much, let’s go and see if we can talk to these people about finding a better opportunity.”

Sheck said there were between 10 and 15 workers from the Philippines, who were in the country on tourist and student visas, which he says are not the right documents for this kind of work.

He also said they were getting about half the …