A photo of a construction worker out in the heat.
A construction worker out in the heat. Credit: Government of Alberta Credit: Government of Alberta

Heatstroke can kill you, and it is an ugly, painful death. The symptoms can include: High body temperature; A core body temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius); change in mental state, with confusion, agitation, slurred speech, irritability, delirium, seizures and coma. Other signs include change in sweating pattern, nausea and vomiting, flushed skin, rapid breathing and racing heart.

Five years ago, over 600 BC residents died in a record setting heat dome event across the province. And the people who grow and harvest our crops under blazing sun are particularly vulnerable to heat induced illness and death.

Canada has a dismal  record on how we treat  agricultural workers. Historically, farm and food workers were long excluded from worker safety and fair treatment protections, even as other workers won those protections by strikes, workplace struggle and lobbying. While some progress has been made, the United Nations warned in a recent report that the temporary foreign workers who do much of Canada’s agricultural work are often exposed to near slavery conditions.

The UN report says, in part:

“Given the structural inequities between temporary foreign workers and employers and their insufficient access to justice and remedies, workers experience a wide range of abuses. The Special Rapporteur received reports of underpayment and wage theft, physical, emotional and verbal abuse, excessive work hours, limited breaks, extracontractual work, uncompensated managerial duties, lack of personal protective equipment, including in hazardous conditions, confiscation of documents and arbitrary reductions of working hours. Women reported sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse. Fraud is also an issue, as some workers reported receiving false assurances that their employers had undertaken a labour market impact assessment or applied for permanent residency, only to find out that they had fallen out of status. Complaint mechanisms are difficult for workers to navigate without external assistance, although the Special Rapporteur was encouraged to learn that efforts to increase awareness of such mechanisms had led to a 39.4 per cent increase in the number of complaints received. Confidentiality is not always well-maintained and whistle-blowers face retaliation despite prohibitions against reprisals. In addition, police have reportedly failed to take complaints seriously, claim that they do not have jurisdiction and report workers to immigration authorities rather than investigating their complaints.”

At a bare minimum, we owe these exploited workers access to clean water and shade while they labour to feed us.

Meanwhile, as global temperatures spike upward driven by human caused climate change,  Canadian workers still do not enjoy adequate protection from heat exposure. This is particularly true of agricultural workers, and a new report from the fledgeling BC Policy Solutions think tank spells out the dangers these workers face in the fields of the province, and argues for specific reforms of WorkSafe BC regulations to address these dangers. (While the report’s focus is on BC, it includes lots of information on other provinces as well, and is recommended reading for anyone who considers themselves an ally of Canadian workers across the country.)

One of the authors of the BC Policy Solutions report, Susanna Klassen, points out :

“Agricultural workers tend to face greater occupational vulnerabilities to heat stress than the average BC worker because they often have precarious immigration status, earn low wages, are rarely unionized, engage in taxing physical labour and usually work outdoors without shade.”

The report urges WorksafeBC, the body responsible for worker safety in the province, to adopt a set of reformed regulations. The proposed changes include:

  • Implement a straightforward trigger temperature approach. (A set temperature at which the employer is required to take remedial or protective steps.)
  • Prioritize worker involvement in developing regulations.
  • Update protocols to reflect current research, especially for acclimatization, shade, drinking water access, rest breaks without pay disruption, sanitation and worker training.
  • Strengthen enforcement systems by developing enforcement partnerships with worker groups, enforcing regulations proactively, naming and shaming bad bosses.
  • Establish rigorous, dignified housing standards for migrant workers.
  • Provide permanent resident status for migrant workers.
  • End the three-month waiting period before migrant workers can access the BC Medical Services Plan.
  • Improve access to unionization and worker bargaining power.

These are all sensible proposals, and overdue. WorksafeBC should hear from us all voicing support for these modest and humane changes. You can use the email address or phone number below to tell WorkSafe to move quickly on these changes. In addition, I urge you to  consider getting your union local, church group, seniors’ group  to lobby Worksafe as well. Summer is coming and lives are at stake.

 [email protected] 1.888.967.5377, ext. 5160

Tom Sandborn

Tom Sandborn lives and writes on unceded Indigenous territory in Vancouver. He is a widely published free lance writer who covered health policy and labour beats for the Tyee on line for a dozen years,...