Farm Safety Associations Come Up Short
Randy Richmond
Free Press Reporter
2004-11-19 03:12:30
BLENHEIM -- A half-minute walk separates the row of tomato greenhouses from the packing operation at Platinum Produce in Blenheim. In January, some workers in the greenhouse complained to the Ontario Labour Ministry about equipment breaking and lack of personal safety gear and safety restraints on working platforms.
Labour Ministry investigators examined the greenhouse and the adjacent packing plant.
The ministry ordered Platinum Produce to set up a health and safety group, fix a tipsy conveyor belt, remove obstacles from the floor and inspect the place monthly -- only in the packing plant.
The 91-building greenhouse operation, the investigators determined, was a farm.
That meant under Ontario legislation the Labour Ministry could do nothing because the ministry has power to inspect and make changes only to workplaces covered under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Instead, the greenhouse farm workers would have to rely for their safety on two other non-government organizations.
As good as those organizations may be, labour leaders say they're not enough to fully protect workers.
One organization, the Farm Safety Association (FSA), gets credit throughout Ontario farms for educating owners, family members and workers about safety.
But the FSA has:
- No power to investigate a workplace without permission of the owner.
- No power to question workers without permission of the farm owner/operator.
- No power to enforce safety measures on farms.
- No farm workers on its board, despite inquest recommendations.
- No obligation to report its investigations to the public.
The other organization overseeing farm worker safety is the Workplace Insurance and Safety Board.
The board charges employers who hire more than one labourer insurance premiums. Those premiums go into a fund that pays for the recovery of workers who are injured.
The board can do mandatory inspections and raise premiums on large employers that have bad safety records.
It can also fine a farmer for not reporting an accident.
But the WSIB has:
- Limited power. Only 10,950 farms are registered. But in 2001, about 24,000 farms reporting hiring labourers. There are about 60,000 farms in the province.
- No obligation to publicly release results of its audits.
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