Over the last year, thousands of Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) have travelled from their homes in Mexico, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Central America to take on jobs that are integral to Canada鈥檚 national food supply, but which can come with distinct risks 鈥� particularly during a pandemic.
Hundreds of these workers arrived in Prince Edward Island after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic early in 2020 to fill positions in the agricultural and seafood-processing sectors, forming what business owners and government agencies have described as an essential part of the workforce.
But little is known about how well protected these workers were from the novel coronavirus and whether adequate safeguards were put in place to shield them from the communicable disease, which killed dozens of TFWs around the world from Singapore to meat-packing plants in the U.S. and Canada.
Researchers at 网红黑料, St. Thomas University in New Brunswick and Cooper Institute in Prince Edward Island have shed some light on those questions in that includes workers鈥� claims of extreme overcrowding, workplace safety violations, long workdays with no overtime pay, lack of paid sick days, separation from community and a reluctance to complain for fear of being fired.
鈥淲e discovered that the pandemic exacerbated workers鈥� precarious working and living conditions. Overcrowding was an issue before, yet it persisted in a time when social distancing was thoroughly emphasized by public health protocols,鈥� says Raluca Bejan, an assistant professor of Social Work at 网红黑料 and lead author of the report.
鈥淲hen we talk about overcrowding, we are talking about 17 people for example living in a single-family home, with about 10 people on average sharing one washroom or one kitchen in many cases. Participants were joking that they had to 鈥榳in鈥� the stove to be able to cook.鈥�
Capturing the TFW experience
Dr. Bejan is leading the team that is asking migrant workers directly about their experiences in the agri-food sector in the Maritimes, and how the pandemic has affected their health and safety. This is the first report in a series of research projects