Board decision clarifies seasonal agriculture workers' right to extended health care

Friday, October 11, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Two migrant farm workers injured in a car accident last year have had their right to extended health care in Ontario confirmed by the Health Services Appeal and Review Board.

Ken Forth, president of the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services, says the board’s decision is a “good thing because it assures that the people who are receiving treatment don’t lose it in midstream.” The Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services is a non-profit organization made up of farm employers that facilitates and coordinates requests for foreign seasonal farm workers under the federal government’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker program.

The health services appeal board’s decision doesn’t impact farmers employing seasonal workers or the Seasonal Agricultural Worker program itself “because they (the workers) are still covered” by OHIP, Forth notes.

Kenroy Williams and Denville Clarke, both of Jamaica, were among nine workers driving to work on Aug. 9, 2012 when their employer’s van swerved to avoid an oncoming car. The van rolled several times. One passenger was killed and several others were severely injured, according to a press release from Justicia for Migrant Workers. It’s a non-profit political collective that advocates for migrant workers’ rights. Spokesperson Chris Ramsaroop couldn’t be reached for comment.

Williams and Clarke were employed under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker program and, similar to all other workers in the program, their OHIP coverage – instated when workers arrive in Canada – expired at the end of the farming season in 2012. But both men were still seriously injured and needed extended health care in Ontario.

Forth wonders why the men didn’t receive their medical care under a claim filed with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. Their health care would have been covered under that claim “for whatever time” is needed, he notes, adding he doesn’t know the circumstances of this situation.

The workers appealed the Ontario government’s decision to pull the plug on their OHIP coverage at the Health Services Appeal and Review Board and won Aug. 16. The board’s decision was to allow the men to receive extended health care in Ontario.

The Ontario government appealed and the board reconsidered its decision but on Oct. 4 affirmed its earlier ruling. BF