Bantrel

Bantrel Constructors has welcomed two temporary workers from the Philippines, the first of several hundred foreign tradespeople the company plans to deploy in 2008.

While more than 25,000 temporary foreign workers are currently working in Alberta to help ease the province's skilled labour shortage, the newest BCC workers are among the first in the province to be deployed in an organized union environment.

BCC relied  heavily on the beachhead established several years ago by Bechtel Construction Operations in Manila to help facilitate the recruitment and balance our Canadian needs in what has quickly become a global demand for skilled workers.

BCC's labour relations team was key to the success of this recruitment strategy. The team's excellent contacts with government and peerless procedural knowledge were integral in BCC's ability to implement this program.

BCC has also recruited personnel to steward the temporary foreign workers through the Bantrel on-boarding process and ready them for productive deployment on the various oilsands construction projects.

Temporary Foreign Worker Awareness
BCC has also introduced a Temporary Foreign Worker Awareness program, which is targeted at ensuring the Canadian workforce is educated culturally. 

The involvement of the federal and provincial governments, as well as the various trades unions in the importation of temporary foreign workers often makes it a challenging undertaking.It takes approximately one year to be granted authorization, recruit, receive approvals and deploy a skilled tradesman to Alberta.

BCC has again proven we are leaders in this growing segment of the market by delivering the first workers just 21 weeks after authorization to do so.