Friday, April 12, 2013

Royal Bank boss apologizes for foreign worker scandal

Not that he thinks the bank has done anything wrong. In fact, he is at pains to make clear the bank followed all regulations.

No, he's only apologizing because they "don't always meet everyone's expectations." How humble!

And when Canada's biggest bank fails to meet everyone's expectations, we are quick to let them know, and Gord Nixon assures us that he's listening.

Nice try, Gord, but I ain't buying it. According to this story, the RBC's arrangement with this particular outsourcing contractor has been ongoing since 2008.

Apparently no one at the bank thought it was dodgy to replace Canadian workers with "temporary foreign workers" for five years, until the CBC broke the story this week.

That smacks of an ethically challenged corporate culture, and hiding behind the "legality" of outsourcing is no excuse.

This kind of dirty dealing is legal because big business' friends in Ottawa look out for big business and not for Canadian workers.

The fact that RBC spent $100 million on this one outsourcing contractor in 2012 alone only comes to light because of a SEC filing made in the US. The Canadian government would prefer not to know what Canadian companies spend on outsourcing jobs, and they would obviously prefer that Canadians don't know either.

Shame on you, Mr. Nixon, and shame on your enablers in Ottawa.

No comments:

Post a Comment