A hearing focused on migrant workers’ ability to raise safety issues amid the COVID-19 pandemic is underway at the provincial labour board.
The proceedings, which began Monday, are the result of a reprisal complaint filed by migrant worker Gabriel Flores Flores. The 36-year-old seasonal worker from Mexico said he was fired by a Norfolk County farm after speaking out about a massive outbreak that infected 200 colleagues and killed his bunkmate.
Scotlynn Growers, a multimillion-dollar farming operation, denies the allegations.
In the complaint filed on Flores’s behalf, Parkdale Community Legal Services says migrant workers’ precarious immigration status means they risk being sent home by their employers if they complain about abuse or safety issues. Under the terms of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, workers’ right to be in the country is tied to a temporary contract at a single workplace.
Around 1,300 migrant workers have tested positive for COVID-19. Three have died.
In testimony Monday, Flores said he watched his bunkmate, 55-year-old Juan Lopez Chaparro, fall ill in May. He said Chaparro told him he had fever and lung pain, but had not been taken to the doctor. Flores said he raised the issue with three supervisors and the Mexican consulate.
In June, Chaparro died from COVID-19. By then, Scotlynn workers had been quarantined for a second time in an attempt to contain the outbreak; Flores himself tested positive but has recovered. The farm has said it spent over $700,000 on quarantine measures and provided timely assistance to sick workers.
Following Chaparro’s death, Norfolk County’s chief medical officer visited Scotlynn’s bunkhouses with farm supervisors to break the news to workers. At that meeting, Flores said he publicly raised concerns about possible reinfection and what would be done to protect employees.
The labour board complaint says Scotlynn’s founder, Robert Biddle, came to Flores’s bunkhouse the next morning, June 21, and accused him of speaking to the media about workplace safety issues. Biddle said Flores would be terminated and sent back to Mexico, according to the complaint.
In testimony Monday, Biddle said he was retired and no longer involved in Scotlynn’s operations, which are now headed by his son Scott. Biddle said he was unaware of any media coverage surrounding the company’s outbreak.
He said he could not have visited Flores on the June day in question because he was “on a boat” sailing to “a small island” for Father’s Day.
The Star interviewed Flores as part of a June investigation into long-standing complaints about housing and working conditions at Scotlynn.
Wendy Carter, Scotlynn’s operation’s director of safety and human resources and a relation of the Biddle family, said Monday that Flores was not terminated but rather voluntarily asked to be sent back home after Chaparro’s death.
Carter said the farm had never terminated a seasonal worker and would have gone through a formal discipline procedure if it did. Carter added that two other employees, who she identified only as “numbers 40 and 41,” also asked to return to Mexico and have been repatriated.
PCLS lawyer John No, representing Flores, asked why there was no written documentation to corroborate discussions with workers about voluntarily returning home. Carter said the conversations were all verbal.
Under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program contract, workers who voluntarily leave Canada early must pay for their flight home. But in Flores’s case, Scotlynn booked and paid for his flight to Mexico, scheduled for the day after his alleged termination.
Flores testified that he has spent four years participating in Canada’s agricultural worker program. On two occasions, at two separate employers, he had to leave before his contract was complete, he said. In 2016 he returned to Mexico early because his mother was hospitalized. The following year, In 2017, he left Canada not long before his contract was up because a major earthquake hit Mexico City and he could not contact family members.
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On both occasions, Flores testified he had to provide written documentation as to why he was voluntarily going home and pay for his flight.
Carter, the farm’s director of safety, said if Flores had been terminated, the company would have been required to notify Service Canada — but it did not because Flores had left of his own accord.
Employment and Social Development Canada does not track data on repatriations of temporary foreign workers. Data obtained by the Star from the Mexican government shows that over the past decade, 5,500 migrant workers have been sent home midway through their contract — sometimes against their will after a workplace injury or after speaking up about unsafe conditions.
Scotlynn president Scott Biddle has previously told the Star it “should never be a concern” for workers to voice their opinion.
Separately on Monday, a coalition of over 280 faith, labour, climate and Indigenous leaders representing eight million members sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stating calling for permanent immigration status for migrant workers, refugees and undocumented residents in Canada.
“Lack of permanent resident status makes it difficult, and often impossible, for migrants to speak up for their rights or access services, including those they may be eligible for, because of a well-founded fear of reprisals, termination, eviction and deportation,” the letter says.
Flores testified Monday that after the alleged termination, a local resident helped him leave the farm before his scheduled flight.
He said he stayed in Canada in search of a job, but couldn’t find work because of his tied work permit. He is currently applying for an open work permit, a federal scheme available to migrant workers who can document abuse, that would allow him to apply for alternative employment.
Flores said the Scotlynn outbreak and its aftermath have caused him sadness and stress, because he is responsible for sending money home to his family to cover basic necessities and his mother’s medical expenses.
The hearing continues Oct. 13.
