May 14, 2007

Trades

Managing foreign workers on site

King Lee

correspondent

Immigrant workers fill voids and do not take construction jobs away from Canadians, a panel told delegates to the 5th International Open Shop Construction conference in Victoria.

“They are now part of our full labour system,” said Roger Dootson, vice president and district manager of PCL Construction Management Ltd. “You will have to import workers. There’s no question. Get prepared and get used to it.”

Dootson, Kerri Johnston, general manager of workforce development for Flint Energy Services, and Ron Nalewajek, vice president of strategic planning and development for Ledcor, formed the panel for a seminar titled “Managing Foreign Workers On Site” at the three-day conference of non-union construction executives held at the Delta Ocean Pointe Resort.

Dootson said his company began importing trades people from Germany about three and a half years ago when a shortage occurred.

He said PCL explained the need to their employees and assured them of job security before heading off to Europe to recruit workers.

He said the Canadian employees initially did not accept the immigrants but after a short period of adjustment, they accepted their German co-workers.

PCL’s initial recruiting costs amounted to $120,000, an average of $4,800 per person and the company budgets 50 cents an hour in excess costs for each of the immigrant workers. He estimated that immigrant workers cost the company 10 to 15 per cent more than Canadian workers.

But Dootson also said the savings in having projects proceed on schedule because of the imported help amounted to approximately $900,000. He said he has found that the immigrant trades people were eager, hard-working and reliable.

He said foreign (the favoured term is now “immigrant’) workers are now being selected to “A” teams on major PCL projects and estimated that 20 per cent of the imported workers were rated above average, 60 per cent were average and the remaining 20 per cent were below average.

Dootson said one of the hard lessons learned was not putting all the immigrant workers on one crew, which made it an “us against them” mentality.

He recommended that construction firms ensure that immigrant employees learn English, preferably at night school, and are integrated into the community.

Nalewajek said the reasons for the need to import labour were a strong Canadian economy, aging work force and low birth rate. He predicted a shortfall of 1,000,000 construction workers by 2010.

Johnston said her firm received government approval to recruit 1,000 foreign workers in April of 2005 after demonstrating that Flint first looked for Canadian trades people to fill the vacancies.

She said the clients or owners of the work site must also be 100 per cent aware that the construction companies building the projects are importing workers.

Johnston said Flint does not bring in foreign workers as foremen and keeps them in groups of two until they have demonstrated complete understanding of the work site.

She said construction companies must also make sure that the immigrant workers can contact their families at home frequently and are provided with food that is adjusted to their needs, recreational programs and off-shift transportation for such necessities as banking.

Between 100 and 200 training hours over a four-week period are spent on English, Canadian trade terms and safety before the workers leave their home countries, Johnston said.

She said the exam success rate for immigrant workers was 94 per cent for steamfitters and pipefitters, 88 per cent for welders and 63 per cent for ironworkers.

Johnston said providing travel allowances for immigrant workers to get home for holidays and on-the-job promotions go a long way towards boosting their morale.

When someone in the audience commented that the task of importing workers seemed daunting, Dootson said his company hired a firm called “Immigration R Us”, Nalewajek said Ledcor did it in-house and Johnston said Flint used labour brokers.

Another asked if contractors lay off Canadian workers while keeping immigrants on the payroll. Nalewajek said the Canadian government had strict rules regarding that situation.

“Have no fear,” Dootson told the audience. “They’re not going to wreck us (or) ruin us.”

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