The government of Cuba is forcing Cuban workers in Canada to send it the greater part of the salaries they are paid by their Canadian employer, according to two former workers who spoke to CBC News.

The Cuban Communist Party also obliges its citizens to attend “political-ideological workshops” and report on dealings with Canadian colleagues, as well as limiting their movements and controlling their relationships outside work, the two said.

Cases of Cuban government wage confiscation have previously been reported in other countries, including in Brazil where Cuban doctors filed a lawsuit that led a Brazilian judge to say the practice amounted to “slave labour.”

In Canada, about half a dozen Cuban professionals work at the cobalt and nickel refinery operated for 30 years as a joint venture between Cuba’s state nickel company and Canada’s Sherritt International in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. They include the CEO of the operation.

About four more work at another Sherritt-Cuba Niquel joint venture in Nassau, Bahamas, that markets the metals refined in Alberta. They work alongside Canadian colleagues and are paid in Canadian dollars, and their wages are also subject to confiscation, according to the two former workers.

WATCH | Cuban workers in Canada say their government seized most of their pay: Cuban workers in Canada say their government seized most of their pay | Duration 2:25 Cuban workers sent to Canada in a joint mining venture are accusing their government of human trafficking and exploitation, saying they were forced to hand over most of their wages, leaving them with barely enough to survive.

CBC News spoke to a former employee at each operation, and both said wage confiscation of Cubans sen