In recent years, there has been significant growth in the use of agricultural temporary foreign workers. In 2024, there were 78,079 migrant workers employed in the agricultural sector in Canada. Without the same legal protections as Canadian workers, these communities face increased health risks on the job.
In 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata, concluded that migrant workers (including those in the agricultural sector) were vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery within Canada. A report from United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada (UFCW Canada) emphasizes the increased and unique health and safety challenges faced by migrant workers due to their living and working conditions, lack of access to healthcare, and language barriers.
Agricultural workers face a complex array of systemic barriers to a safe, healthy workplace. Large farming operations are exempt from certain standards that protect other workers from hazards. In some provinces this includes exclusion from protections in labour legislation and health and safety legislation. These vulnerabilities are exacerbated for migrant farm workers, who are subjected to draconian immigration rules that prevent them from exercising the few remaining rights they have.
Exposure to pesticides is a serious issue for agricultural workers. Even where workers do not use pesticides, the presence of pesticides in workplaces provides a potential route of exposure. Accidental spills, leaks, contaminated buildings and equipment, drift, storage in housing areas, faulty spraying equipment and dangerous workplace practices can all contribute to exposure. Human studies continue to show high potential exposures to pesticides and increased rates of related chronic illnesses such as cancers among populations exposed through agricultural work.
Migrant farm workers have raised concerns regarding lack of access to information on chemicals used on farms and have reported acute and chronic symptoms of pesticide poisoning. Some workers are not aware of the recommended safety measures for the pesticides they are using or the serious risks associated with exposure to pesticides. Workers may experience symptoms of pesticide poisoning and be unable to link these symptoms back to the chemicals they were exposed to.
Safety data sheets are an important tool to help keep workers safe. Safety data sheets follow international standards and include essential safety information on the toxic properties of chemicals, first aid, and formulants contained in products. Once provided to workplaces, provincial occupational health and safety requirements often ensure that employees may access this key information on their workplace hazards.
The Pest Control Product Act mandates that pesticide registrants provide safety data sheets to workers, but Health Canada is failing to ensure this critical safety requirement is enforced. That’s why, on behalf of UFCW, Ecojustice is challenging Health Canada’s unlawful failure to protect agricultural workers by not enforcing the legal requirement for pesticide registrants to provide safety data sheets to employers.
