The government of Cuba is forcing Cuban workers in Canada to send it the greater part of the salaries they are paid by their Canadian employer, according to two former workers who spoke to CBC News.
The Cuban Communist Party also obliges its citizens to attend “political-ideological workshops” and report on dealings with Canadian colleagues, as well as limiting their movements and controlling their relationships outside work, the two said.
Cases of Cuban government wage confiscation have previously been reported in other countries, including in Brazil where Cuban doctors filed a lawsuit that led a Brazilian judge to say the practice amounted to “slave labour.”
In Canada, about half a dozen Cuban professionals work at the cobalt and nickel refinery operated for 30 years as a joint venture between Cuba’s state nickel company and Canada’s Sherritt International in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. They include the CEO of the operation.
About four more work at another Sherritt-Cuba Niquel joint venture in Nassau, Bahamas, that markets the metals refined in Alberta. They work alongside Canadian colleagues and are paid in Canadian dollars, and their wages are also subject to confiscation, according to the two former workers.
Cuban workers sent to Canada in a joint mining venture are accusing their government of human trafficking and exploitation, saying they were forced to hand over most of their wages, leaving them with barely enough to survive.
CBC News spoke to a former employee at each operation, and both said wage confiscation of Cubans sent abroad has been standard practice for many years.
Canadian government officials told CBC News that all workers in the country are protected by its labour laws. But the system of accountability relies on complaints — which the former workers say would come at great risk to Cuban employees.
3 decades of operations
Under the 31-year-old arrangement between Sherritt and the Cuban government, ore is mined in Moa, Cuba, then shipped via Halifax to Alberta, where cobalt and nickel are refined.
CBC News has agreed to conceal the identities of the Cuban workers to protect family members in Cuba from reprisals.
Cuban-born researcher Maria Werlau has documented the Cuban government’s wage confiscation, in particular during medical missions in Brazil, Jamaica and the Middle East, in a report for the NGO Cuba Archive.
She and the former employees say that for those Cubans who are fortunate enough to secure jobs in democratic nations such as Canada, a freer life can only be observed, not enjoyed.
Loyalty tests
The Cubans who work in Sherritt’s operations outside Cuba are professionals vetted for their loyalty to the government, said a former employee who handled international sales for Sherritt from its office in Nassau.
He said jobs with the Canadian operations were highly coveted because they pay more than workers could ever hope to earn in Cuba, where three dollars a day is an above-average wage.
The former employee was a member of the Communist Party, and said many of his colleagues were as well.
The other employee, who worked at the Fort Saskatchewan refinery, told CBC News that he welcomed the news that he was being placed on a rotation for a Sherritt “mission.”
“In Canada you’re normally allowed to remain three or four years. Maybe five at most for a specialist,” he said.
The Cuban government handled all the documentation, including obtaining a Canadian W-1 multiple-entry visa.
A nasty surprise
On his arrival in Alberta, the worker learned that his salary would be beyond the wildest dreams of a professional in Cuba: $89,000, plus a $15,000 top-up for working overseas.
But he received an unpleasant surprise at his first meeting with the then CEO, also a Cuban national.
“The CEO sits with you, face to face, and says, ‘this is how it is: You’re going to earn that salary, and they’re going to discount from it the rent of your house, utilities like electricity, gas and water.’”
After those deductions were made, the CEO continued, the worker would be expected to send all the remaining money to an account in Cuba, keeping only the equivalent of $460 US a month, about $620 at the time.
“That’s what you have to live on for the month, and it has to cover all your food and other needs,” the worker said.
The other ex-Sherritt worker said that from a salary close to $100,000 a year he was authorized to keep between $500 US and $584 US each month, reflecting the higher cost of living in the Bahamas.
Both provided paystubs and receipts of wire transfers to Cuba to back up their allegations of confiscation of up to 84 per cent of their net earnings.
“As soon as you arrive you realize that this is a naked abuse. You work like any Canadian here, but you only get a miserable salary,” said the employee who worked in Nassau.
The former employees said they had to follow up with reports and receipts for expenses such as gasoline to prove that they were not keeping more than the small part of their salary allowed by the Cuban government.
Garage sales and food banks
The workers both said they struggled to live.
“We couldn’t go to a Winners store, or a Marshall store, or the West Edmonton Mall, because there was no way to buy things there. We bought most of our food at Dollarama, which had the lowest prices, and for everything else, garage sales,” said the Alberta-based worker.
He said some of his colleagues also relied on the local food bank.
The worker in the Bahamas office faced even greater difficulties on the expensive island. He said the Cuban workers shared tips on where to find bargains such as food that was due to expire.
“I can tell you that 100 per cent of the Cubans are unhappy about this, but it’s not something you would talk about lightly in public, because the [Cuban] Embassy is going to find out,” he said.
“The moment they realize you’re upset about it they automatically cancel your mission, send you back to Cuba and you don’t get another chance to leave. Either you put up with it, or you go back to the town you came from, and with a mark on you that makes things pretty difficult.”
Fear of being sent home
The former Fort Saskatchewan worker concurred that fear of being sent home kept most workers in line.
“If you complain, the modus operandi that they’ve used is to tell you that you have to attend a meeting back in Cuba. They give you the ticket, you go back and you never return.”
Werlau said that, even after the confiscation of most of their Canadian salaries, workers still earn far more than they could on the island.
She said the Cuban government is “an intermediary that is confiscating the salary, hiring you out to another bidder” which she said amounts to playing the role of a human trafficker.
“The Cuban supervisor has the prerogative to send any member back at any point and to discipline them,” she said. “And the discipline in the regulatory guidelines that they’re given is very extensive.”
She says reprisals have become less predictable as the Communist Party has begun to lose some of its grip over its people in recent years.
The long arm of the party
The Cuban Communist Party also seeks to maintain personal and ideological control over the workers it sends to the Sherritt joint ventures, according to the workers.
“We’re not supposed to form relationships with the Canadians we work with eight hours a day,” said one of the workers. “Outside of work, we’re not allowed to have friendships with Canadians or visit them. When a single person comes, they’re not allowed to form relationships or fall in love.”
He said workers needed authorization of the CEO to leave Fort Saskatchewan, and were not permitted to leave alone. He said the presence of other Cubans is supposed to act as an inhibitor, since workers never know who could report them.
The party also tried to limit their access to outside information, said the worker who was employed in the joint venture in the Bahamas: “If they see you access a prohibited site like the Miami Herald, or any platform that publishes articles contrary to the Cuban government, you’re automatically detected.”
Cubans, not Sherritt, ran the scheme
The workers said they believed that some of the Canadian employees in Sherritt were aware that their Cuban colleagues were subject to wage confiscation. One said that he told his Canadian supervisor about it.
But they said Sherritt was not involved in the scheme, which was “a matter between the Cubans,” as one put it. Both spoke highly of the Canadians they worked alongside at Sherritt.
“[Sherritt] put the money in your account, and you yourself are the one who does the wire transfer. At no point does Sherritt tell you that you have to do that. The one who forces you is the Cuban CEO. It’s the Cuban government.”
In a statement, Sherritt’s director of corporate affairs Tom Halton told CBC News that any suggestions Sherritt might be part of a scheme of wage confiscation “are false.”
“Sherritt International Corporation takes the welfare of our employees seriously,” he said. “Sherritt complies with all applicable Canadian laws and all applicable local laws of the jurisdictions in which we operate.”
The Cuban Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of Cuba in Canada did not respond to CBC News requests for comment.
Canada’s system of controls over employer abuse is designed to respond to complaints. In situations where employees fear to make official complaints, there is typically no obvious mechanism to trigger action.
The workers say the federal government must be aware of the issues at the refinery, though, since a large number of Cuban workers have defected from their jobs there and brought successful asylum claims.
A spokesperson for the Alberta Ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration said it had received no formal complaints about the joint ventures, and that foreign workers fall under the purview of the federal government unless they suffer an injury on the job.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said that “while in Canada, temporary foreign workers have the same employment standards, rights and protections under federal, provincial and territorial law as do Canadian citizens and permanent residents.”
IRCC says foreign workers’ protections were expanded in September 2022, and most now have the right to change employers. For W-1 visa holders, they must apply for and receive a new work permit with their new employer before starting the new job.
The department said temporary foreign workers have access to a 24/7 confidential tip line. “Every tip received is reviewed and appropriate actions are taken within 48 hours,” it said.
Asked if the federal government planned to investigate or take action with regard to the Cuban workers in the joint ventures, a spokesperson said “IRCC has nothing further to add to our response.”
