**4. COVID-19 public health measures – testing, isolation, social distancing and contract tracing**

The primary focus of this section of the chapter is on the provision of evaluation of barriers and challenges to meet the government regulated public health standardspersonal protective measures of infection control for COVID-19, focusing on living and working conditions of FSFWs that uncovered in aforementioned research findings. I was unable to find published scientific research findings on this population on the topic of COVID-19. This section covers findings from a scoping review of gray literature and government documents, as a starting point for further scientific explorations. According to the advocacy group Justice for Migrant Workers more than 1000 Canadian migrant agricultural workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and three deaths were reported among them [28]. Canadian government opened

**45**

of a FSFW:

*call the cops."*

*populations*."

*Occupational Health and Safety Standards of Foreign Seasonal Farm Workers…*

boarders for FSFWs as a response to an outcry from farmers across Canada indicating billions of dollars will be lost in the food production sector due to labour shortage. The Canadian government has developed regulatory conditions that included a safety measures of mandatory house inspection and a report obtained within the past three years has to be submitted by the employer at the time of application or else with an agreement to submit an updated inspection report within the duration of FSFWs employment [29]. There was a link in the document to the letter provided by the minister of health that gives other mandatory public health measures such as 14-day quarantine requirement, with self-isolation, accommodation allowing social distancing of 2 meters apart, providing materials for adequate sanitation and cleaning and disinfecting surfaces regularly [29]. Our previous research indicated that pre-COVID health and safety measures never reached the workers, not written at a format and a linguistic level of comprehension of the workers. We have evidence from the scoping review of COVID-19 incidents reports that the new public health measures were also limited to inaccessible printed materials and never reached a state of full capacity implementation. No monitoring was provided in some cases and when complains were launched about farmers the government lead inquiries were not independent and unbiased. The following description were revealed from the brief scoping review. The scoping review revealed reports of non-compliance to public health measures. It was said that "*upon the worker's arrival, the government has gone on to take little responsibility for the health and safety of migrant workers. This has allowed for an increase in migrant worker abuse and the spread of several outbreaks within migrant* 

The form of abuse and neglect that dated few years back had continued throughout up to the pandemic taking different forms. It was reported that "*Between 2009 and 2018, 3100 complaints were submitted by Mexican workers to the Mexican Ministry of Labour on the issues they faced on Canadian farms, reporting frequent instances of worker abuse, rat-infested dormitories, sewage issues, and gas leaks.*" [30], all of which had happened within the last 3-year period. It is unclear that if the housing inspection report was submitted within the three-year period that granted migrant workers to be employed and if so how those critical public health threats were not detected during the inspection. Perhaps the answer is related to the following report. Workers who were in quarantine in un-health living environments had complained through migrant right activists and the "government agent" informed the supervisor of the farm about an upcoming inspection and they said "*that a supervisor on the farm chose four employees to speak to the agent. The supervisor told the workers to say they were being treated well, that they were being paid OK, even though they weren't, and that if they don't communicate these things to the government agent, that they're going to be deported and they'll never work here (as part of) the program again*." [31]. Many researchers had pointed out the precarious immigrant status had created diminished power for change and demand for rights for FSFWs. There were also reports of noncompliance to social distancing, when quarantined up to 40 migrant workers in a large bunk house and they had to share the same bathroom [30]. According to work

the living conditions had made it impossible not to spread the virus.

Pandemic brought new dimensions of abuse and neglect due to mandatory confinement regulated by the government. As one document (30) reported a statement

*Some farm owners have threatened to fire workers for leaving bunkhouses during quarantine while others have refused to allow migrant workers to leave or to allow visitors to come onto the farm property throughout the pandemic. One worker recounts a farmer telling him, "If you set one foot off the farm, I'll be the first one to* 

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94056*

#### *Occupational Health and Safety Standards of Foreign Seasonal Farm Workers… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94056*

boarders for FSFWs as a response to an outcry from farmers across Canada indicating billions of dollars will be lost in the food production sector due to labour shortage. The Canadian government has developed regulatory conditions that included a safety measures of mandatory house inspection and a report obtained within the past three years has to be submitted by the employer at the time of application or else with an agreement to submit an updated inspection report within the duration of FSFWs employment [29]. There was a link in the document to the letter provided by the minister of health that gives other mandatory public health measures such as 14-day quarantine requirement, with self-isolation, accommodation allowing social distancing of 2 meters apart, providing materials for adequate sanitation and cleaning and disinfecting surfaces regularly [29]. Our previous research indicated that pre-COVID health and safety measures never reached the workers, not written at a format and a linguistic level of comprehension of the workers. We have evidence from the scoping review of COVID-19 incidents reports that the new public health measures were also limited to inaccessible printed materials and never reached a state of full capacity implementation. No monitoring was provided in some cases and when complains were launched about farmers the government lead inquiries were not independent and unbiased. The following description were revealed from the brief scoping review.

The scoping review revealed reports of non-compliance to public health measures. It was said that "*upon the worker's arrival, the government has gone on to take little responsibility for the health and safety of migrant workers. This has allowed for an increase in migrant worker abuse and the spread of several outbreaks within migrant populations*."

The form of abuse and neglect that dated few years back had continued throughout up to the pandemic taking different forms. It was reported that "*Between 2009 and 2018, 3100 complaints were submitted by Mexican workers to the Mexican Ministry of Labour on the issues they faced on Canadian farms, reporting frequent instances of worker abuse, rat-infested dormitories, sewage issues, and gas leaks.*" [30], all of which had happened within the last 3-year period. It is unclear that if the housing inspection report was submitted within the three-year period that granted migrant workers to be employed and if so how those critical public health threats were not detected during the inspection. Perhaps the answer is related to the following report. Workers who were in quarantine in un-health living environments had complained through migrant right activists and the "government agent" informed the supervisor of the farm about an upcoming inspection and they said "*that a supervisor on the farm chose four employees to speak to the agent. The supervisor told the workers to say they were being treated well, that they were being paid OK, even though they weren't, and that if they don't communicate these things to the government agent, that they're going to be deported and they'll never work here (as part of) the program again*." [31]. Many researchers had pointed out the precarious immigrant status had created diminished power for change and demand for rights for FSFWs. There were also reports of noncompliance to social distancing, when quarantined up to 40 migrant workers in a large bunk house and they had to share the same bathroom [30]. According to work the living conditions had made it impossible not to spread the virus.

Pandemic brought new dimensions of abuse and neglect due to mandatory confinement regulated by the government. As one document (30) reported a statement of a FSFW:

*Some farm owners have threatened to fire workers for leaving bunkhouses during quarantine while others have refused to allow migrant workers to leave or to allow visitors to come onto the farm property throughout the pandemic. One worker recounts a farmer telling him, "If you set one foot off the farm, I'll be the first one to call the cops."*

*Occupational Wellbeing*

loss. As one farmer indicated the worker who contacted encephalitis was young, tall healthy looking Mexican and he was confused in the first week of arrival. Upon admission to the hospital his condition deteriorated so fast he was in a medically induced coma. Mexican government flew his wife over and he was in the hospital for the whole season. The employer washed his hands off by saying "*well that as soon as he was in the accident [*ward]*, we didn't see him anymore and we didn't deal with it at all. It was just it was all the governments [*Mexican and Canadian*] and the medical system, the ambulances and then and right away his liaison service had to get involved. We did go down to visit him a couple times and so*." No investigation was carried out how he contacted encephalitis and how his family survived without him sending money and how they are surviving with a permanent debilitating condition afterwards. Interview data revealed that the employers treated FSFWs seeking treatment for occupational related injuries as "*whinny*", "*those who take advantage of the healthcare system*" and "*seeking treatment for minor ailments that Canadians would shrug off*", within which even serious injuries were considered as the fault of the worker. There is an outcry of mass media in the past about medical repatriation, that seriously ill workers are sent back to their country without treating in Canada. Canadian researchers indicated that the employers lack of empathy lead to vision loss of a worker who sprayed pesticide accidently on his eyes and he was not allowed to have a shower and ultimately the worker was medically repatriated. He was not given any compensation since he did not know how to maneuver the governance system [27]. Some NGO representing workers' rights have questioned lack of bargaining power to represent FSFWs rights and privileges. A systematic review conducted among studies on Canadian temporary foreign workers in the agricultural sector included the similar health issues reported by our study participants, mental health, poor housing and sanitation and they also noted language barriers in accessing health-

care all shaped by the precarious immigrant status in Canada [24].

**4. COVID-19 public health measures – testing, isolation, social** 

The primary focus of this section of the chapter is on the provision of evaluation of barriers and challenges to meet the government regulated public health standardspersonal protective measures of infection control for COVID-19, focusing on living and working conditions of FSFWs that uncovered in aforementioned research findings. I was unable to find published scientific research findings on this population on the topic of COVID-19. This section covers findings from a scoping review of gray literature and government documents, as a starting point for further scientific explorations. According to the advocacy group Justice for Migrant Workers more than 1000 Canadian migrant agricultural workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and three deaths were reported among them [28]. Canadian government opened

understand what is safe and what is unsafe.

**distancing and contract tracing**

Our research revealed one farm that is out of ordinary, farmers cared about the occupational health and safety of workers. This farm is run by a young university educated couple. According to the male owner as a rule, the workers break off around lunch time and then rest until the sun set, at 4:00 pm, to avoid sun burns and heat strokes. He mentioned about two people dying of heat stroke in the past. Another farmer said if a FSFW is sick he tried to give them time off or assign light duties to him and "*if they can't work there is no expectation from the farmer they should work*." He further iterated they have developed a culture that they do not want anybody to get hurt. The second farmer further iterated that the FSFWs are well experienced and some of them come for many years to the same farm and they do

**44**

#### *Occupational Wellbeing*

International Labour Organization has given very limited attention to migrant farm workers working conditions, in terms of enforcing legislature to safeguard temporary foreign workers' occupational health and safety, in addition, the host country legislature is poorly applicable to this vulnerable population of workers due to their nature of temporariness and precariousness [32]. My scoping review findings supports that existing situations of neglect and abuse of FSFWs occupational health issues has further exacerbated due to COVID-19 related public health control measures as one NGO participant summed up ""*Because we do not have proper rights, they step on our necks*," [28].
