The following LOOKS LIKE a firm job offer of the type
which I say is necessary. In fact as far as I’m concerned it was a “CONTRACT OF
EMPLOYMENT FIDDLE”.
Back in 1981 when I was still in the U.K. I thought
it was O.K.; it was the end result of me responding to an advertisement in the
London “Daily Telegraph” of
May 15th 1981.
The advertisement was headed with the words, “Canada’s
Energy Boom Means Careers for Engineers and Technologists”.
What is wrong with this job offer?
The said job offer dated July 27th 1981 was as follows:-
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Surveyer,
Nenniger & Chênevert Inc
July 27, 1981
Mr. R.T. Chisholm
95 Caithness Road
Mitcham, Surrey
ENGLAND
Dear Mr. Chisholm:
Following your recent
interviews, we are pleased to offer you the pos-
Ition of Senior Mechanical
Engineer, classification IN-D-16, at a monthly
salary of $3,000.00 in the
Project operations Group, Montreal office,
assigned to SNC/FW
division.
Your schedule of work will
be an average of 37.5 hours per week. If
overtime is required and
approved, it will be paid at the applicable
rate as per existing law
and SNC policy concerning hourly rate employees.
SNC is pleased to recognize your past experience, and therefore, you
will
be entitled to three weeks vacation per year according to our current po-
licy.
Our financial support for your relocation to Canada will include economic
air fare for you and your
approved dependents and accomodation in a fur-
nished apartment with
kitchen facilities for two weeks if this arrangement
is required. All
arrangements will be made by us when you have confirmed
your date of arrival. We will also contribute a fixed
amount of $5,400.00
towards the remainder of your relocation expenses, with payment when you
have demonstrated that substantial expenditures have been incurred.
Our payment of relocation expenses as indicated above is made on the
assump-
tion that you will be a long term employee of SNC. If you wish to
terminate
your employment, for any reason whatsoever, before twenty four (24)
months
from its commencement in Canada, you hereby agree to reimburse to your
em-
ployer a pro-rata amount of the total relocation expenses that have been
paid by the Company.
This offer, of course, is
subject to a satisfactory health condition. To
this end, would you please complete the attached medical health question-
naire and return same to us.
Page 2
Mr. R.T. Chisholm
July 27, 1981
This offer is
conditional to your obtaining “landed immigrants” status or
“bona fide work
permit” from the Canadian Immigrant Authorities.
We
therefore suggest that you start procedures
immediately by filling your
application to emigrate at the Canadian Immigration
Bureau. At our end,
we will be filling with them a confirmation of our
employment offer to
you. Please bear in mind that this offer of employment
does not automa-
tically imply immigration acceptance but simply
indicates our needs for
your technical expertise.
You were given during the interviews a summary of the
social benefits
provided by the Company. Further details as required
will be provided
upon your commencement with the firm.
Please sign and return to the undersigned the attached
copy of this
letter at your earliest convenience to signify
acceptance of employment.
Furthermore due to the actual canadian postal strike,
we would appreciate
receiving your reply to the present by telegram. We
would like to hear
from you within the next month and if you need any
further information,
please do not hesitate to contact me.
We look forward to your joining our Group and to the
significant contri-
bution we feel you will make to the success of our
Company in the years
ahead.
Yours sincerely,
DANIELLE PAGE
Manager, Employment and Recruitment
DP/hp
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Some comments could be made about it now, as follows:-
1. The job offer contained no mention of any probationary period - but appeared
to make it clear that the person so recruited was to work for the company for
at least 24 months.
2. The choice offered between obtaining “landed immigrant status” or
getting a “bona fide work permit” now appears a little odd but at the time there
seemed little or no reason to investigate what might lie behind it.
3. Item 2, in light of
current debate in Canada about the Temporary Foreign Worker program, might have
meant that the person so recruited was expected to decide between entering Canada
as a “landed immigrant” –
for permanent
employment - versus obtaining a “bona fide work permit” in order to enter
Canada as a Temporary Foreign Worker in order to work on a single and
short–term engineering contract. But no such thing was mentioned by SNC or
anyone at the Quebec government office in London, U.K., or the Canadian High
Commission in London, U.K., who saw this same job offer.
In general, it could be said that the job offer intentionally contained
vague language calculated to allow SNC to avoid any significant responsibility
to the person so recruited in the event of an economic down-turn
such as actually occurred (between about1981 and 1983 - precisely the
wrong time, in this case).