RBC denies use of foreign worker replacements

The head of the Royal Bank of Canada has denied that it is replacing Canadian workers with temporary foreign workers.

"Absolutely not," said Gord Nixon, the bank's CEO, in an interview with CBC's Amanda Lang on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange. "Firstly, RBC has not and does not hire any temporary foreign workers."

RBC replaces Canadian staff with foreign workers

Nixon made the comments following a CBC News report that dozens of employees who facilitate various transactions for RBC Investor Services in Toronto will be losing their jobs, replaced by foreign workers

The foreign workers are employed by a multinational outsourcing firm from India – iGATE Corp. – which has a contract with the bank to provide IT services.

The story has sparked outrage from thousands of Canadians, angry that the bank would replace Canadian workers with temporary foreign workers, with some threatening to close their accounts with the bank.

But Nixon said this issue "revolves around a relatively small contract around RBC Investor Services. He said as part of the acquisition of RBC Investor Services, "we've got a program to improve the productivity, efficiency of the business. This involves a relatively small contract that has been won by one of our suppliers, which is iGATE, and that contract, which is an IT services contract, is being transitioned to iGATE."

"Our expectation is that all of our contractors comply with the rules and regulations of the country. And to our understanding, that is the case with this particular situation and it’s also [the] understanding that there maybe one person who is actually here under a temporary foreign work visa of the people from iGATE involved. The rest are just people here for the transition process."