Borders
Left Teaming up with grassroots all-volunteer-run organizations Bayan Canada and Migrante Canada, PINAY members perform street theatre during a sunny day in 2011.
Right Last year marked PINAY’s two decades of struggles and triumphs. Members and supporters gathered for a feast on the occasion. .
are not really well implemented. There is a law, but there is no mechanism to implement them. So, that’s why even [though] the government says there are a lot of changes, it doesn’t favour in our part. It gives us more hardship and it makes us more vulnerable to abuses. We’re getting more isolated because of the kind of job and positions that we have. MC: You talked about how some of the changes included allowing live-in caregivers to apply for permanent residency after 3900 work hours rather than two years of work… P: Yeah, before out of three years but now it’s more; it’s longer. This included also some overtime. But no employers will pay overtime and no employers will declare to
54 The Peak Borders
pay that overtime. If someone gets paid, I don’t think they will include it or declare this overtime. In this law that covers the overtime that you do with your employer, you have to have the evidence that you get paid overtime. So that one, it doesn’t work. MC: Yeah, because that was the reason why they made that change, it was to ensure overtime was appropriately recognized. P: Yeah, because one of the problems in this program is in the contract you have 8 eight hours work [per day, and if they are lucky, are allowed a day or two off each week], but in reality it is a 24 [hours a day] 7 [days a week] kind of job.
of Juana Tejada and her work because we mentioned it earlier?
To read the rest of this interview and hear about Juana Tejada’s struggles after she was denied permanent residency, check out the full interview and audio online at guelphpeak.org
MC: Would you mind sharing the story
www.guelphpeak.org