From Farm to Table

The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada

Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program – The Beginning

Most people do not know where their food comes from or how it gets from the fields to their grocery store. Who are the people that pick the produce that feed our families? Where do they originate from? And how are they supported once they arrive in Canada?

Every year, thousands of temporary foreign workers come to Canada to work in the agricultural sector. The majority of these people work in Ontario and Quebec and originate from countries such as Mexico and the Caribbean (Statistics Canada, 2019). In 1966, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) was implemented as part of a sub-category for temporary labour migration (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Sub-categories of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (Alberta Civil Liberties Centre, n.d.).

The SAWP is one of the longest-lived Temporary Foreign Worker Programs (TFWP) second only to the H-2 visa program in the United States. The SAWP has long been hailed as the gold standard, employing best practices that other countries learn from. It is also one of the most misunderstood programs where best practices are not always followed or put into practice (Binford, 2019).

Proponents of these types of labor programs “argue that they are a win-win-win. Employers benefit from access to flexible labour; workers benefit from employment opportunities with higher wages than those available in their home countries; and workers’ home countries benefit from remittances – wages earned abroad sent home to family members” (Roberts, 2019, p. 977). Opponents and migrant worker advocates warn that the program targets individuals, who are underpaid and undervalued, by creating a vulnerable population (Roberts, 2019).

Vulnerable Population

So why are people working in the SAWP considered a vulnerable population? Do they not have the same rights and privileges as all working Canadians considering they are working in Canada?

The answers to these questions are complex and marred with controversy. The SAWP only hires workers from participating countries such as Mexico, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago as well as the nine countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. This would account for a large number of temporary workers primarily from Mexico and the Caribbean (Figure 2) (Stastna, 2012). Hiring temporary workers has become a widespread practice to compensate for the lack of Canadian labor in the agricultural sector (Statistics Canada, 2019). For lack of a better term, these foreign workers are doing work that most Canadians do not want to do. This was especially highlighted this year with the beginning of the COVID pandemic. We will discuss the impact of the COVID pandemic on foreign workers in the agricultural sector later.

Figure 2: Jobs filled by temporary foreign workers in the agricultural sector and agricultural operations with at least one temporary foreign worker, by province, 2015 (Statistics Canada, 2019).

As with most jobs, workers participating in the SAWP must sign a contract. This standard contract has been negotiated on their behalf by the home countries, employers, and the Canadian government. There is a contract specific to Mexican workers and one specific to Caribbean workers (Stastna, 2012). A standard contract that Caribbean workers sign can be found here. This contract is what opponents and migrant worker advocates say put foreign workers at risk and vulnerable to many labour sector injustices. Examples of labour sector injustices to migrant farmworkers include ineligibility to minimum wages, maximum hours of work in a day or week, daily or weekly breaks to rest or eat, overtime pay, public holidays with or without holiday pay, and paid vacation (Molyneaux Law, 2019).

The SAWP utilizes a closed labour contract; for the time that the worker is employed in Canada they are only allowed to work for the employer he/she has been assigned. The contract length will vary depending on the employer's needs but a standard contract is 8 months in duration. After that time, their work visa expires and they are required to return to their home country. Work permit extensions under the SAWP are not permitted but workers can return the following year (Binford, 2019).

At the end of the work season, employers evaluate their workers by either providing a confidential positive or negative review. A positive review meant that the employer is satisfied and requesting to have the worker return the next season. Conversely, a negative review can mean one of two things:

1. The worker remains in the program but is sent to a different employer or farm, or

2. Is temporarily suspended, or worse, expelled from the program.

Reasons for negative reviews include not working with the expected precision or speed, talking back to employers and causing problems in their bunkhouses (living quarters). What this means is that the future of the foreign worker is highly dependent on the employer's satisfaction (Binford, 2019).

In a study completed by Bosak, Belanger, and Rivas (2013), they noted that “researchers have documented, the lack of mobility in the labour force and the dependence on employers, combined with desperate conditions in home countries, renders SAWP workers very vulnerable to overexploitation and exposure to occupational hazards” (p. 1397).

Advocacy for Workers

Advocates for migrant workers’ rights point out that the program itself is flawed, especially in how it is executed on the ground. Many workers fear reprisals for speaking out against working and living conditions. Reprisals such as deportation have been researched extensively. In a study completed by Bosak et al. (2013), 56% of respondents (n=57) mentioned fearing deportation and/or having received threats of deportation.

The advocacy group Justice for Migrant Workers (n.d.) highlights other concerns as expressed to them by foreign workers, including but not limited to:

• Working long hours (12+ hours) without overtime or holiday pay

• Denied necessary breaks (e.g. not following contract to ensure days off)

• Substandard housing

• Use of dangerous chemicals with no safety equipment or training

• Pay disparities between migrant and non-migrant workforce

• Unfair paycheck deductions (e.g. EI) for which they do not have access to

• Exclusion from basic human rights legislation (e.g. aspects of the Employment Standards Act)

• Lack of appeal process when employers repatriate workers to home country

• Inability to claim residency for themselves or families despite working in Canada for years

• Inadequate access to health services

• Depression and loneliness

• Gender discrimination

COVID – 19 Impact on Seasonal Agricultural Workers

2020 has been a difficult and challenging year for everyone but for seasonal agricultural workers, it was especially difficult. As Haley et al. (2020) details, the National Farmers Union “publicized some of the key problems faced by temporary migrant agricultural workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, they noted that the COVID-19 health crisis exposes “deeper problems” in the seasonal worker program, and exposes the vulnerabilities of migrant farmworkers” (p. 36).

Public health concerns that have been raised include:

• Housing conditions on some farms (Figure 3)

o Overcrowding not conducive to social distancing

o Minimal bathroom facilities – Federal standards require 1 toilet per 7 workers and 1 shower

per 10 workers

o Lack of ventilation leading to fear of virus spread

• Lack of personal protective equipment

• Lack of field sanitation and handwashing stations on worksites

• No access to EI should a worker become ill with COVID-19

• Reprisals such as deportation if a worker becomes ill as they are no longer able to work under the SAWP

For local seasonal farmworkers, the impact of COVID-19 has been deemed one of Ontario’s largest COVID-19 outbreaks. A farm operation in Norfolk County saw 164 of their workers test positive with 7 requiring hospitalization and of those 2 requiring intensive care (Craggs, 2020).

Figure 3: The inside of a Norfolk County, Ontario farm bunkhouse (Antonacci, 2020).

Moving Forward

The only path to resolution is change. It has long been seen that there are systemic problems to the SAWP. COVID-19 thrust those issues into the spotlight. Amendments to SAWP contracts that include increased employee rights, increased employee inclusion to Canadian labor laws, and stronger enforcements for adequate housing need to be addressed. Advocacy groups are encouraging and fighting for a path to permanent residency. As the SAWP grows, there are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed in order to keep Canada’s food supply chain operating while keeping workers safe and duly represented.

References:

Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre. (n.d.). What is the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP)? http://www.aclrc.com/questionsanswers

Antonacci, J.P. (2020). How many migrant farm workers can safely quarantine in a bunkhouse? The Hamilton Spectator. https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2020/07/30/how-many-migrant-farm-workers-can-safetly-quarantine-in-a-bunkhouse.html

Binford, A. (2019). Assessing temporary foreign worker programs through the prism of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program: Can they be reformed or should they be eliminated? Dialectical

Anthropology, 43(4), 347-366. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-019-09553-6

Bosak, T., Belanger, D., & Rivas, E. (2014). Reproducing deportability: Migrant agricultural workers in South-Western Ontario. Journal of Ethnic and Migration, 40(9), 1394-1413. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.849566

Craggs, S. (2020). Don’t be racist towards farm workers with COVID-19 says Brantford’s health unit. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/brant-1.5600779

Haley, E., Caxaj, S., George, G., Hennebry, J.L., Martell, E., & McLaughlin, J. (2020). Migrant farmworkers face heightened vulnerabilities during COVID-19. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(3), 35-39. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2020.093.016

Justice for Migrant Workers. (n.d.) The seasonal agricultural workers program. https://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/

Molyneaux Law. (2019). Migrant worker’s rights: How does Ontario law protect temporary foreign workers? https://www.molylaw.com/2019/07/migrant-workers-rights-ontario/

Roberts, S.E. (2019). The bureaucratic and political work of immigration classifications: An analysis of the temporary foreign workers program and access to settlement services in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integrations, 21(3), 973-992. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12134-019-00693-w

Stastna, K. (2012). Canada’s migrant farm worker system – what works and what’s lacking. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-migrant-farm-worker-system-what-works-and-what-s-lacking-1.1142489

Statistics Canada. (2019). Agricultural sector workers from the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, 2015. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/190708/dq190708a-eng.htm