Unpaid working hours, outstanding overtime, lack of statutory holiday and vacation pay were all realities experienced by caregivers in 2011. According to British Columbia’s Ministry of Labour, 21 complaints were received last year from domestic workers filing grievances for problems with compensation from employers.

Many of those caregivers earn minimum wage, which goes up 75 cents to $10.25 an hour on May 1 — the last of three scheduled increases. Caregivers in Vancouver are looking forward to the increased pay but fearful of how this raise may affect their livelihoods.

With pressures of increased costs, some employers could be forced to put their children in daycare or terminate their domestic worker. Caregivers worry that they may be expected to work additional unpaid hours to keep their jobs or that their hours could be reduced.

“My employer tells me that I am more expensive than the monthly mortgage,” says Lala, a local caregiver who followed her family from Hong Kong to Vancouver. “I write all my hours I work but they don’t give me the right overtime pay.”

Lala is not alone. Domestic workers feel vulnerable when speaking out about unpaid wages. Caregivers are required to work for two years, or 3,900 hours, before they are eligible to apply for permanent residence in Canada. During this two-year period, they may only work for one employer. Fearful that they may be sent home if they voice concerns over lost wages, domestic workers prefer to stay silent.

Ai Li Lim, staff lawyer and executive director of the West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association (WCDWA), has strong concerns about the effects of the minimum wage increase.

“The caregivers should not be expected to bear the burden of this wage increase through increased costs for their room and board,” she said. “The government could provide other options to offset the costs, like an increased family tax credit.”

A few months ago, the West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association received anonymous emails from caregiver employers expressing strong concern about the rising wage. “Some employers called us to ask if caregivers have rights,” said Alisha Bell, an independent contractor working with WCDWA.

The issue of domestic workers lodging complaints against their employers is a complex one. Caregivers often live with the family, eat meals together and take care of the children for years at a time. Domestic workers simultaneously provide money to their families back home, making the pressure to keep their job in Canada intense.

Vancouver-Kensington MLA Mable Elmore said she has had visits from local caregivers.

“I have not heard any complaints from the employers of domestic workers, but we do have caregivers visit my office concerned about payments from their employers,” she said. Elmore refers the domestic workers to non-profit groups such as WCDWA or the Employment Standards Branch.

Mary, a caregiver from the Philippines, said she has worked for an employer she claims did not pay her for hours worked. “I put the kids to bed in the evening, the parents go out and I am expected to watch the kids while they sleep. I do not get paid for this time,” she said.

One alternative is a monitoring body that could make monthly reviews to ensure workers are paid for their hours.

“We recommended to Citizenship and Immigration Canada that a reporting system should be put in place to keep a close eye on employers and make sure caregivers are paid proper wages,” said Manuela Gruber Hersch, the general manager of International Nannies & Homecare in Vancouver.

There is an obvious solution to this dilemma. Both federal and provincial governments should commit to assisting Canadian families with the cost of care for their loved ones.

That means ensuring caregivers are paid fairly so that they can continue working. It also means that Canadian families should be better supported to pay their caregivers.

Sacha DeVoretz is the founder and editor-in-chief of GlobalImmigrantNews.com. Based in North Vancouver, the website provides a voiceto immigration issues around the world.

Immigrants with live-in caregiver visas will now be able to obtain an open work permit 18 months sooner, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced Thursday.

Already, about 14,000 live-in caregivers have been given open work visas since the policy was changed, the minister's press secretary confirmed Thursday.

Open work permits allow caregivers to seek another job, if they choose, when their two-year live-in caregiver contract is complete, without losing their permission to be in Canada.

"Too many live-in caregivers have completed their work obligations but must continue living in the home of their employer, waiting for their application for permanent residence to be reviewed," said Kenney. "This is understandably frustrating."

The Live-In Caregiver Program allows Canadian families to hire caregivers from abroad to live in their home and care for a child, an elderly person or a disabled adult when there are no Canadians available for the job.

Those in the program need to work for 3,900 hours or two years before they are eligible to apply for permanent-resident status.

Until now, however, they could not look for other work while they waited for initial permanent status approval — which, with the current backlog, typically takes about 18 months.

Kenney said the new policy accelerates the processing time by 18 months. Live-in caregivers now get their open work permit as soon as they can apply for permanent status.

The new policy is a result of consultations Kenney had with live-in caregivers on how to prevent them from being exploited, the minister's press secretary said on Thursday.

"Minister Kenney is concerned with the treatment of live-in caregivers in Canada," wrote Candice Malcolm in an email. "People in this program sometimes face difficult situations, such as those described in the front-page abuse allegations against then-Liberal-MP Ruby Dhalla."

Two years ago, Dhalla made headlines when a former nanny alleged she "was mentally tortured and physically stressed" by long work hours and insults in the family household.

Since the program began, similar allegations have surfaced in other parts of the country.

The new policy is a welcome change to better protect live-in caregivers, said Manuela Gruber Hersch, president of the Association for Caregiver and Nanny Agencies in Canada, a group that seeks to set ethical standards for the caregiver industry.

"It gives (live-in caregivers) a lot more freedom," she said.

But Gruber Hersch said Canadian families will need to brace themselves for what she predicts will be a rapidly dwindling supply of foreign nannies.

"We will see and we already have seen a growing shortage of caregivers, live-in and live-out," she explained. "Once they get their open work permits, the vast majority will move on to other industries . . . They've done their 24 months and they want to move on."

The shortage is already happening, she said.

Gruber Hersch said she recently heard from a B.C. caregiver placement agency which already has received notices from six nannies.

The new policy is unprecedented, said Toronto immigration lawyer Rafael Fabregas.

Although he welcomes the change, Fabregas said he is suspicious of the federal government's motivation.

"It's bizarre," said Fabregas. "It's bizarre how they can announce this type of a policy after basically doing nothing for the past year-and-a-half and accumulating all these applications."

Along with the massive backlog of permanent residence applications, the wait time for live-in caregivers crept up over the past year-and-a-half, to almost 20 months from six months, said Fabregas.

"Now they're basically creating a policy to kill a backlog that they created, in a way making themselves look good," he said. "I just think all of this doesn't pass my smell test. It reeks, quite frankly."

Fabregas said the policy raises a lot of other questions. He wonders what will happen now for other immigrant groups, such as sponsored spouses, who are still awaiting a decision on their permanent status without open work permits.

"Is the immigration department now going to . . . start issuing them work permits upon application?" he asked.

As for a mass exodus of live-in caregivers looking for jobs in other industries, Fabregas said it's too soon to tell.

"Are caregivers suddenly going to start leaving that job for greener pastures in a climate where unemployment is slowly creeping up? I don't know," he said. "I'm not convinced that that's what going to happen, but I could be wrong."

If it does happen, Fabregas said Kenney will need to put on his thinking cap to figure out the government will fill the gap.

New Democrat MP and immigration critic Don Davies said the new policy is a step in the right direction.

But it still fails to solve another problem, he said — the fact that many live-in caregivers must leave their own children and spouses behind in their home country. They are only allowed to sponsor them to come to Canada once they receive permanent residency.

"It's ironic because we're bringing women . . . from around the world to come here and look after our children, separating many of them from their own children," said Davies.

Since the vast majority of live-in caregivers end up getting permanent status, Davies said there's no reason to delay the sponsoring process.

tfletcher@postmedia.com