Eighty Serbian construction workers who came to Canada under a federal guest worker program have lost their Canadian jobs and may be sent back to the Balkans because their Canadian employers didn’t send their deducted income tax to Revenue Canada.

Baulex Projects Ltd., a subcontractor on the Golden Ears highway bridge project that crosses the Fraser River between Maple Ridge and Langley, brought the Serbs to Canada.

The workers are out of a job because Baulex allegedly received funds for both wages and income tax remittance from the project’s prime contractor, Bulfinger Berger, but failed to remit the necessary tax deductions to the government. Because of this failure, Baulex bank accounts have been frozen and workers have not been paid for two weeks.

A man who answered the phone at the Baulex offices told the Tyee on September 25 that the company’s owner was out of the country and could not be reached for comment. He refused to give the Tyee either his own name or the name of the owner. A Bilfinger Berger document posted on the Board of Trade website does identify Baulex as a Bilfinger subcontractor.

Ian McLeod, who speaks for Golden Crossing Group, the joint venture building Golden Ears, confirmed in a telephone interview on September 25 that Baulex accounts had been frozen by the Canada Revenue Agency and that the Baulex contract to provide re-bar work on the bridge project had been cancelled on September 22. He said he could not speculate about what would happen to Baulex’s foreign employees.

Some of the affected workers have been in Canada for over two years now, said Dean Homewood, business representative for the Construction and Specialized Workers Union Local 1611 (Labourers), which represents the 80 men. Unless the Baulex workers have their permits under the federal guest worker program shifted over to Bilfinger Berger, the project’s prime contractor, they will have to return home.

The use of guest workers on the Golden Ears bridge project has been controversial for several years. In 2006 the Tyee reported that Canadian businesses and unions were demanding that no guest worker permits be granted for the project. The number of guest workers brought to Canada went up 25 percent from 100,000 to 125,000 last year and is expected to be higher in 2008.

“The government needs to step up the policing of the permit policy,” Homewood said. “The government has to assume greater responsibility in screening these contractors who are bringing in foreign workers to make sure they get paid, their benefits are paid, they get holiday pay, overtime and other benefits they are entitled to.”

Tyee contributing editor Tom Sandborn can be reached with feedback or story tips here.