**6. Recommendations for improvement: farmers and workers suggestions**

Farmers were under the impression that there is always room for improvement. One of the suggestions made was having physiotherapist and massage therapist to train the workers. One farmer put this as:

*"Well one thing I've been thinking about on our own farm and maybe in other farms it might apply, or the program in general but give given that a lot of the work the guys do is kind of repetitive motions and things like that. And I was thinking like the physiotherapists or [ergonomist] who can train people you know on good posture and showing them certain exercises you can do every hour or so to sort of you know do minimize carpal tunnel and you know things [repetitive motion injuries] like that."*

Another farmer suggested rotating workers on the same task, within one work shift to avoid repetitive injuries and also to reduce stress of engaging in the task. Another obvious recommendation was to provide training to avoid ergonomic and posture related injuries. According to one farmer:

*"I'd like to try to get some of that in place, 'cause they you know they, a lot of the work is repetitive physical work and I mean rotating if there's a crew and there's* 

**47**

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

*stress or whatever. So that that that's one thing there, I'd like to see."*

*different functions, so the guys kind of rotate through the day to the different positions so the, whatever the motions are they're doing, kind of changes to give the body a chance to recuperate and not get in to repetitive stress, tight syndromes uh muscle* 

Another farmer suggested to have a fact sheet written in simple language. Farmers felt the need to support the workers to be healthy and to avoid occupational

FSFWs also made suggestions for improvements. One suggestion was to have easy to understand safety training materials to be developed. For example, cartoon like characters to get the messages across to carry out tasks safely and provided an example of Mickey mouse using the rake and also to train them how to safely sharpen the tools and proper ways to kneel and stretch. A study conducted in Canada in the year 2003 interviewed FSFWs in their country of origin, after returning from their work term in Canada. They recommended to continue health insurance that they purchased while working in Canada, after they returned home enabling them to get the necessary treatments for the ailments and injuries that

In summary, this chapter provided an overview of foreign seasonal farmworkers occupational health and safety standards, incidences, and caveats to implementation of policies and regulations. While each author provided compelling and empirically rich observations based on local fields of study, generally lacking are broader global connections and policy discussions about how the problems raised

• Occupational health and safety of this population is regulated as a tri-partied responsibility; of workers, of employers (farmers) and of non-governmental agencies and therefore none takes the full responsibility to implement existing

• There are no mechanisms to ensure the information is reaching out to the workers, albeit to the fact that the readability of the available information is written in a language at a level higher than workers level of education.

• In comparison with the limited data collected from Canadian farm workers, made it clear that FSFWs lack negotiating power to shape systemic changes to curb barriers to occupational health due to their precarious immigrant status of

• Foreign seasonal farm workers arrive in Canada healthy, due to the pre migration screening procedures that allows only healthy immigrants to migrate, a well documented notion called "Health immigrant effect" [26]. This research revealed incidence of exacerbation of existing chronic conditions related poor

work and eating habits that they continued after migrating to Canada.

• We have noted several forms of neglect and abuse, in accessing and promoting healthcare when needed, ignoring hazardous work environments and not providing proper training and safety equipment and neglecting basic public health and sanitary conditions. The forms of neglect of health issues resonated

"working for home" and thus by putting long hours and days.

can be meaningfully addressed. Following is a summary of findings.

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

occurred while working in Canada [24].

guidelines and policies.

related injuries.

**7. Conclusions**

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

*different functions, so the guys kind of rotate through the day to the different positions so the, whatever the motions are they're doing, kind of changes to give the body a chance to recuperate and not get in to repetitive stress, tight syndromes uh muscle stress or whatever. So that that that's one thing there, I'd like to see."*

Another farmer suggested to have a fact sheet written in simple language. Farmers felt the need to support the workers to be healthy and to avoid occupational related injuries.

FSFWs also made suggestions for improvements. One suggestion was to have easy to understand safety training materials to be developed. For example, cartoon like characters to get the messages across to carry out tasks safely and provided an example of Mickey mouse using the rake and also to train them how to safely sharpen the tools and proper ways to kneel and stretch. A study conducted in Canada in the year 2003 interviewed FSFWs in their country of origin, after returning from their work term in Canada. They recommended to continue health insurance that they purchased while working in Canada, after they returned home enabling them to get the necessary treatments for the ailments and injuries that occurred while working in Canada [24].
