The Royal Bank of Canada is defending its plan to replace 45 Canadian employees and outsource their jobs to foreign workers after drawing outrage from people who see the move as taking jobs from qualified Canadians.

Reports over the weekend said the bank was replacing Canadian workers in Toronto with temporary foreign workers on visas.

On Sunday, RBC confirmed it is laying off 45 employees who do IT-related work and outsourcing their jobs to a smaller number of employees who work for a firm called iGATE.

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But it doesn’t count as replacing Canadian workers with foreign ones, the bank says, because the new workers don’t technically work for RBC.

“We are not hiring employees. We are working with a supplier,” Zabeen Hirji, the bank’s chief human resources officer, told the Star on Sunday.

Replacing Canadian workers with contracted iGATE workers, who may be temporary foreign workers, is “unacceptable,” Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley said in a statement issued Sunday.

In fields where there is a shortage of skilled Canadians, the temporary foreign worker program allows businesses to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis to fill those jobs, but only if a Canadian isn’t available to do the work.

“It was never intended as a means to bring in temporary foreign workers in order to replace already-employed Canadian workers,” Finley said.

Hirji says RBC is working with the federal government to make sure all regulations are being followed.

“We contractually require our suppliers to abide by all the regulations and legislation. They are a reputable company,” she added.

The bank is helping the 45 targeted workers find other jobs within the company and some employees have decided to retire, Hirji said, but in the meantime, the 45 affected workers must help train iGATE employees to help them understand how their jobs are done.

Dave Moreau, a worker affected by the layoffs, told CBC that training his replacement “adds insult to injury.”

“I can certainly sympathize with the employee and I can understand that it’s a difficult situation. Change is difficult and different people react to it in different ways,” Hirji said.

The bank may “need to find a different way to transfer that knowledge” if employees are finding it difficult, she added.

After being trained, most of the new workers will leave Canada within about three months, though Hirji couldn’t confirm where in the world they will be working.

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The plan also drew criticism from the United Steelworkers. National director Ken Neumann says businesses could use the temporary foreign worker program to drive down wages and take advantage of workers.

And by Sunday night, more than 1,000 people were members of a Facebook group calling for a boycott of RBC.

The controversy comes as the federal government is reviewing its temporary foreign worker program, out of a fear employers are using them to fill long-term needs rather than on a temporary basis.

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