London immigration
Six immigration officers at the Canadian mission in London were off the job for three days last week.
One immigration officer, who did not want to be identified to avoid possible repercussions, said the past few weeks have been difficult.
“It's very hard for us, all of the job action is very hard for us, working to rule is hard for us,” the officer said.
“Walking away from my files at the end of the day knowing that if I just stayed a little bit longer, more could get done, that's incredibly difficult.”
But the officer said PAFSO was asking them to stand up for something that should be expected—equal pay for equal work.
“We're being asked to do this because there are people working, doing the same work as some of our colleagues and are being paid more, and fundamentally that just seems to me to be wrong,” the immigration officer said.
The impact of the striking has varied from mission to mission.
In London there were locally engaged officers who were able to make decisions on temporary and permanent residency files.
While there wasn't much disruption on issuing temporary residency visas, for example, the immigration officer said there was an impact in other ways.
People noticed the six employees were gone, and other staff members were called in to do jobs they wouldn't normally do.
“The intent wasn't to cause a backlog of 1,200 temporary resident visas...the intent in my opinion was to show that we're here,” the immigration officer said.
Some of the impact could be felt later on.
Both officers who dealt with family class immigration cases withdrew services, so some of those files would have a three-day delay in being dealt with.
“This is not easy for us...this is not something that we dream of doing,” the immigration officer said.
