Royal Bank apologizes to outsourced workers

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

ATBs front line staff are unionized.

But ATB isn't a bank?

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by Rathji

But ATB isn't a bank?

Sorry. I was thinking financial institution.

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Dont confuse the dollar amount of profit with "giant profit margins."

Relative to the amount of capital in play, profits aren't gigantic.

Cowperson

Please clarify. I'm aware of how a company's revenue is different vs actual profit, however I'm also aware that banks are making record profit margins which I would assume equates to direct profit. Can you provide information to suggest otherwise?

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Dont confuse the dollar amount of profit with "giant profit margins."

Relative to the amount of capital in play, profits aren't gigantic.

Cowperson

They're making lots of money. They can do this because they're really smart. If they're that effing smart, they can figure out ways to continue making lots of money without outsourcing jobs in their primary country of operation. If RBC Belgium wants to re-route calls to Bangladesh, I really don't care. As long as they're operating in Canada, they have to know they'll be held to a certain standard.

Replace people with younger cheaper workers, by all means. Do it locally. I don't care if it's hard; if you can figure out derivatives, you can figure out this.

[DuffMan]

So, Gord Nixon made about 12,600,000 in 2012(a 25% raise from 2011). How much money do you think offshoring jobs, and putting a bunch of Canadian IT people out of work, will save?

I know they said they are offering new jobs, but really. "Hey there Java coder, how do you feel about sitting on a stool behind a counter, cashing checks and paying bills for people, and then trying to upsell them with more RBC products.

Like I said, this is something I'd expect from Bain Capital, not RBC.

[Devils'Advocate]

So now the TFW program is being exposed within the restaurant industry and not just banking.

Tying the two together:
McDonald's CEO:

This story has been brewing for a lot of years. And you know at the end of the day we just happen to be the business that got tapped into it and we weren’t the first. Obviously, RBC was," said Betts, referring to a previous CBC Go Public story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...####-1.2621151

What I find interesting is that the CBC has been front and centre in exposing the abuse of the TFW program while the other Canadian news media are just following the lead of the CBC. The National Post admit that it is the CBC that are the primaries on this story:
http://business.financialpost.com/20...orkers-victim/

Where were the other news sources on this?

[CaramonLS]

CBC link broken. Replace letters with s h i t.

[stampsx2]

This is brutal. Enough to make me want to switch all my banking. Right now when you call into the bank you can get pretty good banking or investing ideas/advise/info. Yes i said it, they have some very good employees occasionally.

If i were investing in india i would want to speak with someone who understands, lives and expieriences the indian economy. In canada i want to speak with someone who also has rrsp's/resp's or a mortgage and knows how the boc operates.

Poor desision on rbc's part. Very poor.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Not sure this even qualifies as surprising. Disappointing? I guess, but corporations saw an opportunity to manipulate the system to turn it into a way to drive down wages and abuse the original intent. Corporations care about one thing, profit, as that's the only thing their investors care about. Doing the right thing only involves doing the thing that raises shareholder value. So long as it's legal-ish, then they're cool with it.

I'd say for people to vote with their wallets and boycott these companies, but sadly the majority of Canadians simply don't care. It's affecting jobs they consider undesirable and that they themselves never intend on working for, so why do they care? Horrible attitude to be sure, but it's the way it is. In fact if the foreign worker program ended, and companies were forced to pay more to employ Canadians and that drove up the cost of people's Tim's or McDicks, they'll be more pissed at that.

[puckluck2]

I have a problem with this but only because I'm sick of calling a company and having a person who barely can speak English try to solve my problem.

With McDonald's I don't see the issue. They need workers, and loyal ones too, not some 16 year old high school student who can't work past 9. Many of the McDonald's are now 24/7 and truth is there aren't many Canadians willing to work that shift.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

CBC link broken. Replace letters with s h i t.

Wow I am slow. With some on the dislike to CBC out there, I thought this was an attempt to imply that CBC is a crap news organization or something.

Then I click the link and to tried to get it to work.....

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by Kavvy

Wow I am slow. With some on the dislike to CBC out there, I thought this was an attempt to imply that CBC is a crap news organization or something.

Then I click the link and to tried to get it to work.....

It looks like CP filters that word... Don't know how to fix the link given the filter.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

It looks like CP filters that word... Don't know how to fix the link given the filter.

Easy. Click the link, get to the dead page and replace the hashtags in the URL with the required word.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

I have a problem with this but only because I'm sick of calling a company and having a person who barely can speak English try to solve my problem.

With McDonald's I don't see the issue. They need workers, and loyal ones too, not some 16 year old high school student who can't work past 9. Many of the McDonald's are now 24/7 and truth is there aren't many Canadians willing to work that shift.

It's other restaurants as well. There was a restaurant in Saskatchewan that replaced most of their staff with foreign workers and the staff that was let go had to train them before they were let go.

Many companies are preferring foreign workers because for the workers to stay in Canada, they need to keep the job and will therefore go above and beyond what a Canadian worker without the lingering threat of deportation would (i.e., never call in sick, work unpaid OT confidentially, put up with verbal abuse).

It's not fair IMO that in some industries, Canadian workers are put in a position now where they need to sacrifice family and the lifestyle/culture they are accustomed to just to keep a low-paying job. Ya, it sucks that foreign workers tend to come from crap holes that make being foreign worker in Canada a better experience for them, but it is getting close to drawing the line soon.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

I have a problem with this but only because I'm sick of calling a company and having a person who barely can speak English try to solve my problem.

Have you tried calling the company and suggesting they hire people who are more proficient in English?

Originally Posted by puckluck2

With McDonald's I don't see the issue. They need workers, and loyal ones too, not some 16 year old high school student who can't work past 9. Many of the McDonald's are now 24/7 and truth is there aren't many Canadians willing to work that shift.

What if they paid more? Would they then be able to staff that shift?

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

It's other restaurants as well. There was a restaurant in Saskatchewan that replaced most of their staff with foreign workers and the staff that was let go had to train them before they were let go.

Many companies are preferring foreign workers because for the workers to stay in Canada, they need to keep the job and will therefore go above and beyond what a Canadian worker without the lingering threat of deportation would (i.e., never call in sick, work unpaid OT confidentially, put up with verbal abuse).

It's not fair IMO that in some industries, Canadian workers are put in a position now where they need to sacrifice family and the lifestyle/culture they are accustomed to just to keep a low-paying job. Ya, it sucks that foreign workers tend to come from crap holes that make being foreign worker in Canada a better experience for them, but it is getting close to drawing the line soon.

I agree to an extent. I used to work at McDonald's and it was just amazing how once the clock hit a certain time all you'd see were immigrants and people who actually NEED the job. Long weekend? good luck not having 5 people call in sick. Is it fair to McDonald's or any company really that they have to put up with employees who can't work until a certain time or refuse to work weekends, long weekends....some employees think they're too good for their job and that is where most of the problems arise from. Nobody wants to go above and beyond at their low paying job. Good Canadian workers willing to work for minimum wage are scarce.

It sucks that some Canadians are paying the price but truth is foreign workers are MUCH more loyal than Canadian workers. Don't whine as much as us or complain about working certain days. I think we still need Foreign workers. Maybe scale back the amount a certain company or restaurant can use but getting rid of it altogether is not a good idea IMO.

[Wormius]

Maybe I am missing something, but how did all of these restaurants that are complaining that they can't stay open, run their businesses before?

Were all of these restaurants and businesses close to going bankrupt or have to their doors before the TFW program began?

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Have you tried calling the company and suggesting they hire people who are more proficient in English?

It's not only their English, it's their accent. I can barely understand my mom speak English let alone some Indian dude I've never met.

What if they paid more? Would they then be able to staff that shift?

Maybe but then would it be worth it for them to stay open late if they're paying their night crew $18 hr?

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Maybe I am missing something, but how did all of these restaurants that are complaining that they can't stay open, run their businesses before?

Were all of these restaurants and businesses close to going bankrupt or have to their doors before the TFW program began?

There was a huge shortage of workers during the boom. No idea when this program started but I remember a lot of restaurants were either forced to close early or close entirely some days and signs on the door specifically blamed a shortage of workers for them being closed.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Maybe I am missing something, but how did all of these restaurants that are complaining that they can't stay open, run their businesses before?

Were all of these restaurants and businesses close to going bankrupt or have to their doors before the TFW program began?

There are some communities that are being sustained by TFWs right now. You'd see huge closures in retail and the service industry in Fort McMurray if restrictions on unskilled TFWs were put into place.