"Migrant worker testifies deductions from pay 'excessive',"

...

Every two weeks, a group of migrant workers who were contracted out to employers by a London foreign labour recruitment agency received what was left of their pay in envelopes.

There always were deductions, he said, for rent in substandard housing. The kitchen sink was broken, forcing them to wash their dishes in a small washroom. The stove only had two working burners. Some workers hauled in their own mattresses that became infested with bed bugs.

There was more money taken off for utilities including electricity, water, gas and Internet, plus money to pay for the plane tickets that brought the workers to Canada. The deductions, he said, were “excessive.”

They were paid $12 an hour by the agency to work at a local turkey farm. He has testified he was told he would be paid $16 an hour by a recruiter in Guatemala...

All three [defendants associated with Bethesda Gricultural Enterprises] face charges of withholding travel documents and Brown faces a charge of assault.

The trial surrounds the activities of Bethesda Agricultural Enterprises Inc., a recruitment service run by Jose Callejas, a pastor, out of the basement of the church that placed foreign workers in local labour jobs.

The man testifying is among the first of a group of migrant workers who say they had their passports taken away and were forced to live in substandard housing at a northwest London address...