The Royal Bank of Canada has come under fire for some questionable hiring and firing practices that have come to light recently.  Dozens of Canadian employees at the countries largest bank are losing their jobs in favour of temporary foreign workers, who have been brought in to take over the work of their department.

These foreign workers  are employed by a multinational outsourcing firm from India – iGATE Corp who have worked closely with RBC since 2005, having  a contract with the bank to provide IT services.

“They are being brought in from India, and I am wondering how they got work visas,” said Dave Moreau, one of the employees affected by the move. “The new people are in our offices and we are training them to do our jobs. That adds insult to injury.”

In February of 2013 RBC told Moreau and his colleagues 45 of their jobs with the regulatory and financial applications team would be terminated at the end of April.

These employees will be receiving a severance package but at the core of the issue is the fact that RBC is replacing Canadian workers with foreigners, a practice that Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley called “unacceptable” in a recent press release.

“We have recently learned of allegations that RBC could be replacing Canadian workers by contracting with iGate, which is filling some of the roles with temporary foreign workers.”

“The purpose of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is to fill acute labour needs when Canadians are not available for the work required. It was never intended as a means to bring in temporary foreign workers in order to replace already-employed Canadian workers. This is why we have launched a review of the program.”

The Royal Bank has an “RBC Offshore Development Centre” in the iGATE facility in Bangalore India, leading to further questions about the companies true policies regarding foreign hiring.

RBC spokesperson Rina Cortese told Go Public several foreign workers from iGATE will be working in the bank’s Toronto offices until 2015. By then, she said, most of the work will be transferred abroad, but a few of the foreigners will remain indefinitely.

Minister Finley has said that she has instructed her department to work with Citizenship and Immigration Canada to determine the next steps, emphasizing that “Canadians should always be the first in line to fill available jobs in Canada.”

SOURCE: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada