A winery in British Columbia has been permanently banned from hiring temporary foreign workers.
Toor Vineyards, which operates Desert Hills Estate Winery in Oliver, was also fined $118,000.
According to government documents, Toor was in violation of numerous regulations. For one, the employer "didn't give the inspector the documents they asked for."
Additionally, "the pay or working conditions didn't match, or were not better than, what was listed on the offer of employment, or the job was not the same as what was listed on the offer of employment."
Thirdly, the employer "didn't put in enough effort to make sure the workplace was free of ... physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, [or] reprisal."
No further information was made public regarding exactly how Toor Vineyards violated the aforementioned regulations.
This is not the first time Desert Hills Estate Winery has been cited in matters involving temporary foreign workers. In 2023, it was fined $16,000.
While fines and temporary bans are common punishments for companies found to have contravened the regulations, a permanent ban is quite rare.