The National Farmers union is using May 1, International Workers Day, to call for better protection for workers’ health and safety and especially for temporary foreign workers.
“Across the provinces, existing OHS (occupational health and safety) legislation is inadequate to properly protect workers from the mounting health impacts of climate change,” the NFU said in a news release,
“Additionally, farm workers continue to be excluded from many of the provinces’ Employment Standards protections.
“Without labour and OHS standards enabling workers to take breaks, limit hours worked on the farm, or access life saving measures such as shade, potable water, and appropriate PPE (personal protection equipment), farm workers are vulnerable to the negative health impacts of severe weather and extreme heat.
“This vulnerability is particularly acute for the tens of thousands of migrant workers employed in agriculture, whose closed work permits tie them to a single employer. “Risking deportation if they advocate for their health and safety, migrant workers face increasingly dangerous living and working conditions due to expanded pesticide use, intolerably hot employer-provided housing, wildfire smoke, and extreme weather.,” the NFU said,
It repeated its appeal to “government leaders to advance the rights of migrant workers, including the need to overhaul the agricultural streams of Canada’s temporary foreign worker programs to ensure safe working and living conditions, end closed permits, and offer real pathways to citizenship.”