Ontario construction death inquiry spurred by community and labour activists
- Date
2010
- Auteurs
Agriculture Workers Alliance
- Résumé
The announcement by the Ontario government that it will appoint an expert advisory panel to investigate the slew of deaths and accidents at Ontario construction sites, “is welcome news as long as all stakeholders are at the table,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada
- Titre de la série
AWA E-News
- Institution responsable
Agriculture Workers Alliance
- Notes
The announcement by the Ontario government that it will appoint an expert advisory panel to investigate the slew of deaths and accidents at Ontario construction sites, “is welcome news as long as all stakeholders are at the table,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.
“We’re encouraged that the voices of labour and community activists are finally being heard. That has to continue if the work of this panel is going to result in saving lives and reducing accidents.”
The province’s announcement resulted from an intensive campaign by migrant worker advocacy groups, such as No One is Illegal - Toronto, and labour unions in the wake of a Christmas Eve construction site accident in Toronto that killed four workers, and left a fifth worker in critical condition. All five workers had precarious immigration status in Canada.
“Shoddy equipment, weak enforcement and lax inspection are certainly factors. But underlying those concerns is the rampant abuse of migrant workers and their inability to raise workplace concerns because of their status,” says Naveen Mehta, UFCW Canada Director of Human Rights, Equity & Diversity.
“It is a national crisis. You have a federal Temporary Foreign Workers program that effectively encourages employers to treat workers like disposable commodities. The workers who died Christmas Eve had no effective ability to complain or go to the government, or to their employer and say ‘Hey! This is unacceptable.’ Time and time again we have seen that doing so has resulted in deportation.”“It is an issue the Ontario expert panel can’t ignore,” says Mehta. “You should not be allowed to build profits on the bodies of migrant workers.”
- Liens
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Ontario construction death inquiry spurred by community and labour activists (http://awa-ata.ca/en/media/e-news-2010/e-news-vol3-issue-4/)
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- Secteurs économiques
Trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations - general
- Types de contenu
Cas d’abus documentés
- Groupes cibles
Sensibilisation du public
- Domaines de réglementation
Normes du travail et Santé et sécurité au travail
- Pertinence géographique
Canada, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, Colombie-Britannique, Autres provinces et Fédéral
- Langues
Français, Anglais et Espagnol