Justice for Migrant Workers
Defence Organizations Demand Protection for All Farm Workers
Organizations active in defending migrant
workers
are
stepping up their fight in defence of all farm
workers, whose
most vulnerable section is made up of over 60,000
seasonal and
temporary workers who come to Canada each year to
work in the
agriculture industry. Many arrive through federal
programs such
as the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program
(SAWP).
Last month the
federal government granted farmers the ability
to hire migrant workers throughout the pandemic,
so long as they
self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival. The
regulation, however,
does not apply to those deemed essential by public
health
officials. The federal government also shamefully
washed its
hands of the need to provide the ways and means
through which
migrant farm workers can practice social
distancing at work and
in their lodgings. Migrant farm workers are
typically given
inadequate housing that they must share with many
others. Yet the
federal government has decreed that farm
businesses are the best
positioned to provide adequate lodging in
conjunction with the
provinces.
According to a report published in July 2019 by
the Canadian
Agricultural Resources Council, the employment of
temporary
migrant workers increased from 45,600 in 2014 to
nearly 60,000 in
2017. That means migrant workers made up one-sixth
of all jobs in
the Canadian agricultural labour force. In
Ontario, 14,000
temporary migrants are hired to work in the
agricultural sector each
season. In southwestern Ontario, Leamington and
the neighbouring
municipality of Kingsville annually receive 5,000
to 6,000
workers, the vast majority of whom are from
Mexico.
For close to 20 years now, Justice for Migrant
Workers (J4MW)
has been advocating for the rights of not only
migrant, but all
farm workers and is stepping up its fight, under
the conditions
of the COVID-19 pandemic, to demand urgent
protection for these
workers.
For example, the Ontario Ford government has
announced a
wage increase and special bonuses for some of the
workers
providing front-line services during the
coronavirus pandemic,
such as certain workers in hospitals, long-term
care centres and
emergency shelters, but it has not seen fit to
include farm
workers amongst those eligible for such measures.
J4MW is
demanding to know why farm workers, one of the
most vulnerable
and essential groups, are excluded from these
income supports. In
light of recent news reports about the spread of
the virus to
agricultural operations, J4MW is demanding that
the province
undertake measures to protect the interests of
farm workers, as
well as the food supply chain.
In an April 26 press release, J4MW urges the
province and the
Ministry of Labour to undertake immediate steps to
ensure that
all farm workers can be protected from the
pandemic's spread.
According to the press release, these steps should
include the
following measures:
- extend the wage boost to include all farm
workers in
Ontario;
- provide an expedited appeals process for
migrant
workers
filing complaints with respect to occupational
health and
safety and employment standards;
- do not tie migrant farm workers to a single
employer;
- extend occupational health and safety
legislation to include
agricultural dwellings;
- strengthen anti-reprisal protections to ensure
workers are
not fired for raising health and safety concerns
or if they
become sick or are injured at work;
- develop regulations to protect workers from
heat
stress,
chemical or pesticide exposure, confined spaces,
working at
heights and other occupational hazards;
- increase proactive and snap inspections for all
farming
operations across Ontario;
- provide hazard pay, sick pay and other benefits
to recognize
the dangers associated with agricultural work;
- recognize pay based on a piece rate as an
occupational
health and safety hazard;
- develop and implement occupational health and
safety
legislation that recognizes racism and systemic
discrimination
and provides an equity analysis in determining
which categories
of workers are at greater risk of occupational
hazards;
- communicate what protocols the Workplace Safety
and
Insurance Board has in place to isolate infected
workers (and
protect uninfected workers) if there is an
outbreak in a
bunkhouse or workplace;
- end employer wage deductions for all personal
protective
equipment and develop regulations that ensure
employers provide
bathrooms, washing facilities and potable water
for farm workers
across Ontario;
- strengthen migrant worker protection against
recruitment
fees by holding employers and recruiters jointly
liable; and
- end the exclusions to holiday pay, overtime
pay,
minimum
hours of work provisions and the myriad of
regulations that deny
fairness to farm workers.
"These are
long-standing requests that farm workers have been
bringing up for decades" said Moilene Samuels, an
activist with
J4MW. "If we want to stamp out the spread of this
pandemic then
we need structural changes to address the systemic
power
imbalances that exist in our field," Samuels
added.
J4MW and many organizations fighting in defence
of
migrant
workers are also demanding that the Canadian
government provide
residency status for all migrant workers.
The press release quotes University of Windsor
law
professor
Dr. Vasanti Venkatesh. He notes that "migrant farm
workers have
been the lynchpin of the harvesting season and
their
contributions have become more crucial than ever
as they provide
Canada with food security during the pandemic.
Yet, it is during
harvesting season that the workers are given [the]
least
protection, as they work numerous overtime hours
without pay
under hazardous living and working conditions."
Venkatesh also notes that "the structural
inequities in
agriculture work are exacerbated under the twin
forces of the
pandemic and harvesting pressures. It has
therefore never been
more imperative to provide the workers with all
the rights and
protections. Farm employers are receiving several
benefits in the
form of subsidies and other grants and other
regulatory
exemptions. It is time that the workers receive
the benefits that
are due to them and are valued for their essential
labour."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 15 - May 2, 2020
Article Link:
Justice for Migrant Workers: Defence Organizations Demand Protection for All Farm Workers
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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