CHRISTMAS PARTY
DATE: Saturday
December 17th, 2011
10 am to 5 pm
Where: 20, Boul. De Maisonneuve
Ouest, Montréal,
Québec H2X 2R4
2ND FLOOR
Saint Laurent metro
More info...
The Association des aides familiales du Quebec (AAFQ) was founded in 1975. It is a non-profit community organization. Its mission is to ensure that the value of the work done in private homes is recognized, respected and valued.
The AAFQ actively supports proper working conditions for home caregivers, as well as fighting for their rights. The organization also provides home caregivers with the opportunity to break out of their isolation and create ties of solidarity with fellow workers within the Association.
What is a caregiver?
For the AAFQ, a caregiver is a professional who executes multiple functions in a private home. She takes care of the household by doing different chores and organizing activities related to the well-being of the family. She also assume the entire responsibility of the care of the children, elderly or handicapped people in the absence of the parents or tutors.
Become a Member!
As a member of the Association you can access to all our services. You will get informed with all changes in Immigration and labor law. Health and social services, and in all aspects of Caregiving. Access to professional trainings, attend seminars, socialize and mingle with other Caregivers.
If you have certain issues to tackle, book an appointment through sending us e-mail or calling us.
Tel: (514) 272 2670 / info_aafq.ca
The AAFQ is not an agency and has neither a mandate from nor obligations towards employers. Employers who are looking for the services of professional home caregiver may nevertheless send us their job offers, for circulation within the AAFQ. Please note that the Association will not accept a job offer that is not in conformity with Labour laws.
If you want to hire or sponsor a Caregiver, you can get more information at www.canada.ca
If you want to work as a Live-in Caregiver in Canada, visit the government website for more information. Visit www.canada.ca . The Association can only help you if you are in Canada particularly in Quebec.
To recieve updates and newsletters. join our mailiing list.
Association des aides familiales du Québec
2348, Jean Talon est, bureau 407
Montréal, Québec H2E 1V7
FRENCH CONVERSATION COURSE
August 13th to December 17th 2011
Every Saturday, from 9:00 to 12:00
the AAFQ
This year, the AAFQ celebrates 35 years of fighting for the live-in caregiver rights, particularly those working under the federal Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). During these years, the Association has worked for the recognition, valorization and the respect of the trade of live-in caregivers. Whether it is through the medium of public awareness campaigns regarding the problems related to the respect of caregivers rights, the depositing of legal memoires on this topic or of political representations, the work of this Association is vast and is spread as much in the local community sphere as it is on the international scene.
The AAFQ grants its expertise via its service-councils. The assistance to our members is varied and touch upon a multitude of issues, in particular the difficulties inherent in the strict conditions of the LCP, the consequences to immigration and the problems connected to the labour standards such as overtime pay, or medical care coverage by public programs such as the CSST and health insurance, to name only a few examples.
Through the years and thanks to its devoted engagement, the Association has managed to make steady and considerable gains in improving the too-often difficult situation of the Quebec caregivers. As an example, after a fight of more than 20 years, discrimination between the title of live-in and live-out caregivers was themselves removed from the Law on the labour standards, and this law henceforth covers nannies.
The AAFQ is also actively involved in the fight against the slave trade; among other things, it lodged a work with the Inter-ministerial committee on slave trade in Canada, chaired by Justice Canada.
The Association of Caregivers in Quebec and its expertise is widely recognized today and is demonstrated in particular through the many invitations it receives each year to take part in research and conferences, local as well as international, on the issues surrounding live-in caregivers. As such, this association is henceforth an indispensable player in this domain and continues to multiply its partnerships and collaborations with community and governmental agencies such as the Ministry for immigration and cultural communities, which contribute all the more to widen its field of expertise and involvement. Here’s to another 35 more beautiful years!
the STAFF
The caregivers situation and our principal demands
We estimate the number of caregivers in the province of Québec to be between 20 000 and 40 000, as citizens, Canadian residents, immigrants, member of the federal Live-in Home Caregiver Program (LCP) or unauthorized worker. Of this number, at least 75% are located in the Montreal area. About 97% are female, 10% live with their employers, 80% come from multiple countries and only 20% are originally from Québec. Statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and other governmental estimations show that between 1000 to 1500 of them are registered to the LCP.
Limited rights In spite of many important changes to the Labour Standards to offer the same protections to every caregivers, these workers still face difficulties to get their rights recognized at work. The AAFQ often intervene at the Labor Standard Commission and the Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse in order to get the caregivers situation taken into consideration.
ALL caregivers are excluded from the protection of the Act respecting industrial accident and occupational diseases. Individuals who employ caregivers are not considered as employers under this law. Thus, the caregiver has to register herself at the CSST and personally assume the related fees unlike other workers in Québec. The AAFQ condemn work-related laws unfair to the caregivers and demand their protection to the government like every other workers.
The LCP The AAFQ condemn the federal Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) (see below).
With numerous demands often unnecessarily heavy, this program casualize the labour of the caregivers who usually leave their own families behind to come take care of ours.
First of all, the necessity to live with their employer paired with the nominative work permit for a unique employer makes the caregivers vulnerable and dependent. Due to processing delays of many months for every demand, they can’t afford changing employers. This situation leads to abuse like recurring demands for overtime, usually unpaid, psychological harassment, sexual abuses and so on.
Therefore we are asking that the work permits issued by the Canadian government would not be nominative allowing caregivers to work for any employer in a given sector. We also urge the abolition of the obligation to live with the employer. Being free to choose their home, caregivers under the LPC would be better equipped to enforce their work contract while avoiding 70 hours work per week, which is unfortunately frequent.
Furthermore, caregivers are not entitled to income security programs because employment insurance is hardly accessible to them and they lose all benefit from the moment they don’t have a valid work authorization. Education access as well as multiple other integration programs are also limited by the LCP.
Migrant caregivers without work authorization are excluded from every social protection including the Labour Standards because they are considered as violating the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The same applies to those without work permits.
Caregivers are only partially covered by Québec’s health insurance. In fact, when these migrant workers change employers (thus nominative work permit), they don’t have health insurance coverage until they receive their new work permit, which can take up to several months. In addition to putting them in precarious situations, having to pay expensive medical cares, this situation inevitably lead to serious health problems. In that sense, through multiple obligations and endless processing delays, the LCP weakens the caregivers access to social laws facilitating abuse and deny of their rights.
the LCP
The Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) is a program established by the Canadian government in order to fill a “shortage” of caregivers, shortage often created by mediocre work conditions. Families who wants to hire a caregiver under this program have to prove their impossibility to find a worker already established in Canada and their sufficient resources as employers.
The program allows caregivers who completed 24 months or a total of 3900 hours of work within 4 years to apply for permanent residency, without any guarantee to be accepted. During that 4 year period, they are only recognized with a temporary status. This program is available only to caregivers who have the equivalent of a high school formation (i.e. 11 to 12 years of study) and a minimum of a year of work experience or a 6 months formation for the profession of caregiver. French or English knowledge is also required to be admissible. The application process is long and handling delays can be over one year.
LCP caregivers have to conclude a written employment contract with their future employer. This contract must include chores, working hours, salary and social benefits. It also has to respect labour laws in effect.
A register of the employers Presently, home caregivers are invisible and isolated. Since employers do not have to register themselves, there is no official record of where home caregivers work, nor of how many there are. A register would make both workers and employers aware of their rights and obligations. Thus, the AAFQ demands that the Quebec government create a mandatory public register for the employers of home caregivers.
Caregivers trafficking and smuggling
Many AAFQ members are aware of the reality of catastrophic economical situations : Filipino, Morocco, Eastern countries, Latin America and Caribbean’s. Their experiences are too often not much better. Some of these women have been caregivers since childhood and have worked in multiple countries. They arrive in Canada with a tourist or diplomatic visa or with a work permit. Their employer, recruiting agencies or immigration consultants can ask them 2000 up to 20 000$US.
From the moment of their arrival, they find themselves at the mercy of employers looking for cheap and illegal labour excluded from the application of labour laws. Caregivers are then kept in terror through deportation threats and the confiscation of their identity papers. They stay isolated, sometimes illegally confined in their employer’s house. They work up to 20 hours a day for which many of them don'’t even receive a salary, and are subjected to violence and other abuses.
As of today, there are still no data on the numbers of caregivers victim of trafficking and smuggling, but the public needs to be aware that these cases are a part of Quebec’s and Canada’s' reality. Social and economic inequalities encourage international migrations towards industrialized countries of a female and fragile workforce and tend to increased human trafficking. Combining its strength with other human right supporters, the AAFQ has fought to protect these victims of trafficking. Among other things, we obtained from Citizenship and Immigration Canada the issue of 180 days long work permits to allow the caregivers to continue their process without the fear of losing their status. Unfortunately, this first step is still well insufficient to protect these women.
Our demands
The AAFQ's actions have evolved over time, and our demands have changed as public awareness of the experience of home caregivers has increased.
As part of our continuing effort to valorize and standardize the occupation of home caregivers, the AAFQ's present priorities include :
Action and political representations
In the media
For nearly 35 years, the AAFQ has been fighting to improve caregiver’s working and living conditions. Therefore political representations are being carried out by the Association to multiple governments and administrations.
Many fights have been won over the years (Labour Standards Act’s modifications in 2004, protection of trafficking victims in 2006, etc.) but many more remains, such as the CSST coverage, the registering of employers, a reform of temporary work programs, etc.
The AAFQ is actively in contact with the CNT and the CDPDJ to support caregiver’s working specificities. The Association also represents caregivers in front of the Ministère de l’immigration et des communautés culturelles and the Citizenship and Immigration Canada to preserve a dignifying immigration process by avoiding implementation of unacceptable working conditions.
Intervention > Registration
The Association des aides familiales du Québec offers workers resources that can help to ensure that your rights will be respected. The staff members are there to inform caregivers and help them with their numerous demands to CIC, the CNT, community resources for women, and many more. When you become a member of the AAFQ, various services and tools, which will help improve the quality of your life in the exercise of your profession, will become available to yo
Workshops
Information sessions, discussion groups and training workshops often take place on Saturdays. Come and join us. They're a great alternative to staying home alone. Workshops are offered free.
French conversation classes Contact us to register !
In order to break caregiver’s isolation, the Association is organizing social activities for all occasions such as Valentine’s Day, maple season, Christmas, apple season, etc. Members and volunteers always help planning these days of fun. You can join them in the organization of these activities. It is a great opportunity to create new relationships with other women.
Call the AAFQ to learn about the upcoming activities and don’t hesitate to participate or even help with the planning. We are open to every suggestions !
Every year, on the last Saturday in April, the AAFQ organizes an event to celebrate Home Caregivers' Day.
The fight for the cause is far from over. Since the public remains largely oblivious to the difficult conditions in which most home caregivers live, the AAFQ also organizes special events to increase awareness, as was the case on August 12, 2001, with Toujours serviables, jamais servantes (Always ready to serve, never a servant), an action that was well-covered by the media.
Job Search Support (Emploi Quebec) ONLINE PLACEMENT
Improving communication between employers and employees is also an important part of the action to be carried out. Accordingly, the AAFQ agrees to offer support between qualified home caregivers who care that the value of their work be recognized, and employers, if they share the same goal.
This is why the AAFQ is undertaking to keep up to date an electronic billboard to publish on line ads by AAFQ members who are looking for a job.
Integration and Training AAFQ has developed a guide which aims to improve the integration of caregivers in the Quebec labour market by highlighting how their work experience as caregivers can be applied to additional professions in the health and household maintenance trades.
It provides information on various professions, required qualifications, and information on pursuing additional training and education. Finally, the AAFQ hopes that this guide serves as a catalyst to recognize caregivers' training and skills, as well as promote physical and financial security for caregivers in the labour market.
For more information, consult the Guide of Related Trades - (PDF)
Copies of this document can be obtained at the AAFQ too.
DATE : Saturday
17 December 2011
Where : 20, Boul. De Maisonneuve Ouest
Montréal, Québec H2X 2R4
Ø Gift exchange (10 $)
Ø Potluck
Ø Games and lots of fun.
Bring friends!!!!!!!!!!!
Live-in Caregivers!
Be counted
and
Be heard
Break from your isolation and
join us.
ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is an indispensable player in the fight for decent working conditions. Founded in 1919, the ILO is a tripartite United Nations (UN) agency composed of government representatives, employers and workers. In 1946, the ILO became the UN's first specialized agency. It's mandate is to develop international labour norms and to see that they are respected by the 178 member states. For the ILO, the notion of decent working conditions summarizes the aspirations of all human beings in the workforce.
The 99th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) took place on June 2-18, 2010. The Governing Body placed an item on decent work for domestic workers on the agenda of the 99th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of 2010 with a view to the setting of labour standards and continues to be on the agenda of the 100th session that will take place next summer. The final goal is to elaborate a convention acompanied by a recommendation. During summer 2011, the employers, the governments and workers will meet in Geneva to negociate the proposed convention and recommendation. For the AAFQ, this is a priceless opportunity to put forward the concerns in evidence over the last 35 years.
Also, at the announcement of the ILO's agenda, an Ad-hoc Workgroup supporting decent labour conditions for live-in caregivers (Quebec, Canada) was created so as to make itself heard by governments, international institutions, and the general public on actions needing to be taken in order to achieve the goal of decent labour conditions for live-in caregivers. The Ad-hoc Workgroup includes members from community organizations, unions and similar groups that wish to paint a clearer picture of the labour situation of live-in caregivers in Quebec. To accomplish this, they created a document to respond to the ILO questionnaire on the topic of "domestic workers", while remaining closely
aligned with the interests of these workers and in order to eliminate their vulnerability. In 2011, the Ad-hoc Workgroup submitted comments on specific provisions of the proposed convention and recommendation. Those comments will be sent to the Governing Body and will be discussed during the 100th session of the ILO.
Workgroup document - On the Promotion of Decent Work for Domestic Workers (PDF)
Réponse au questionnaire de l'OIT- Portrait des aides familiales au Québec (PDF)
Commentaires et propositions- Projet de convention et de recommandation concernant le travail décent pour les travailleuses domestiques (PDF)
ADDRESS:
2348, Jean-Talon Est, bur. 407 Montreal (Qc) H2E 1V7
Tel: 514 272 2670
Fax: 514 272 8338
Office Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday
9:00 AM - 5:00PM
Association des Aides Familiales du Quebec
2348 Jean-Talon Est, bur. 407 Montreal (Qc) H2E 1V7
info_aafq.ca T 514 272 2670 / F 514 272 8338
