Ontario Farm Fined $125K For Mishandling COVID-19 Outbreak That Killed Migrant Worker
Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers, one of Canada’s largest employers of migrant farmworkers, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to take reasonable precautions to protect employees and agreed to pay a $125,000 fine plus a 25 per cent surcharge. Nathan Denette/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has fined a farming company in southern Ontario $125,000 after management failed to isolate employees during a COVID-19 outbreak that resulted in the death of a Mexican migrant worker.
The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development convicted Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc., located on Vittoria Road in Norfolk County, on June 6, after a COVID-19 outbreak that affected agricultural workers between May 13, 2020, and June 1, 2020.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development says the first positive COVID-19 case at the southern Ontario farm was detected on May 28, 2020. The next day, Haldimand Norfolk Health Unit declared an outbreak at the workplace.
“It was reasonable to assume those people were also infected in the workplace,” said Kalem McSween.
“On May 29 and 30, the District Health Unit conducted more testing, which revealed a total of 196 positive cases of COVID-19 among the 216 agricultural workers on the farm.”
The farm group had faced 20 charges after an inspection by the provincial Labour Ministry in September.
3 Agricultural Workers Were Hospitalized After COVID Outbreak
McSween says that although most workers were asymptomatic, three of them needed to be hospitalized due to COVID-19.
Mexican migrant worker, Juan Lopez Chaparro, 55, died that June.
Before the employees were hospitalized, the deceased worker was “bedridden for several days” in a bunkhouse where they lived with other agricultural workers.
“They had symptoms typical of COVID-19, but they were not isolated,” McSween says. “Bunkhouses housed anywhere from eight to approximately 50 workers.”
Under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, an employer is required “to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect workers.”
The Ministry of Labour ultimately ruled that Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc. failed to protect its employees by isolating COVID-19 symptomatic workers from others to protect them from the transmission of COVID-19 at the workplace.
“Scotlynn is a multi-million-dollar, multi-national corporation, and these fines are just the cost of doing business to them,” said Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
“Canada needs to give migrants equal rights so that they can protect themselves through permanent resident status.”
Representatives for Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc. plead guilty in Ontario’s Court of Justice.
