"Migrant workers from New Brunswick sue seafood processor,"

Two migrant workers are suing a New Brunswick seafood processing company for what they allege was “widespread exploitation” and mistreatment...

Juan Pablo Lerma Lopez and Adriana de Leon Silva, both from Mexico, are seeking wages that they say they are owed under a six-month contract they entered into last year. They are also seeking $12,500 each for the “great emotional pain and stress that Lebreton inflicted” on them, a statement of claim says.

Lopez is asking for $7,359. He states he was paid $6,015 but should have earned $13,374. De Leon Silva alleges she was paid $6,837 but is owed another $6,537. “We’re filing this claim to get these two particular workers the money they’re owed,” Hussan said.

Lopez and de Leon Silva were among 80 migrant workers hired through the federal temporary foreign workers program last year to work at LeBreton’s lobster and crab processing plants near Tracadie-Sheila, N.B., the court document says.

It says LeBreton agreed to pay for the workers’ round-trip travel from Mexico to Canada and the company provided housing, charging them $300 per month.

Lopez lived in a company-owned motel where he shared a room with two other LeBreton employees, while De Leon Silva lived in a house with 12 other people, the document says. A company vehicle took them to the plant, and without it the workers had “virtually no way of getting around, since they were located in remote areas without access to public transit,” it says.

The lawsuit alleges there was no work available for the two people until two weeks after their April 23, 2023 arrival in the province, and that they were also idle between July 5 and Aug. 15. Lopez and de Leon Silva were unable to earn money elsewhere during these periods because of the rules of the foreign workers program...

The allegations contained in the court filing have not been tested in court. After The Canadian Press contacted LeBreton about the lawsuit on Aug. 20, a spokesman who did not provide his name returned the call to say the company had no comment.

The statement of claim says that on July 16, 2023, 49 of the migrant workers were told they were being sent home early. One worker, on behalf of the remaining workers, wrote to the company on July 28, requesting, among other things, full pay for at least 30 hours a week over the expected length of the contract and a break from paying rent when they were not working...