UFCW Canada partners with Ecojustice to mount legal challenge to ensure health and safety of farm workers

Leamington, Ont. – June 9, 2025 – UFCW Canada has launched a new legal case challenging Health Canada’s unlawful failure to protect agricultural workers by not enforcing safety data sheet requirements under the federal Pest Control Products Act (PCPA). Without access to critical information about the chemicals they are handling, agricultural workers are unable to protect themselves from hazardous pesticides at work.

The PCPA mandates Health Canada to ensure that pesticide registrants provide pesticide safety data sheets to workplaces. Safety data sheets follow international standards and include essential safety information on the toxic properties of chemicals, and the health conditions that may result from their use. By failing to enforce this requirement, Health Canada is putting the health of agricultural workers, especially migrant farm workers, at risk.

The case is being brought by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada), represented by lawyers from Ecojustice. UFCW Canada represents more than 2,000 agricultural workers in different contexts and also advocates for non-unionized primary agricultural workers. Ecojustice is Canada’s largest environmental law charity.

 Francisco, Guatemalan Agricultural worker said:

“The boss gives us the pesticide, tells us to fill the tanks, and sends us to spray the plants. No gloves, no masks, no protection at all, nobody showed me how to protect myself nor how to handle the pesticide. The greenhouse is packed with workers, all of us breathing in the chemical. If we complain, we are fired and deported. So we keep quiet.

“I don’t know how many times I have felt my skin burning, my head spinning, or my stomach turning until I throw up. But what can I do? This job in Canada is my only chance, my family back in Guatemala depends on me. Without it, my kids won’t go to school. The boss knows that and takes advantage of that.”

Shawn Haggery, National President, UFCW Canada said:

"Migrant agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable workers in Canada and are continuously exposed to hazardous and dangerous chemicals in the workplace. Our union has long-advocated for improved working conditions for migrant workers; our most recent report focused on the health and safety challenges faced by migrant workers, including chemical hazards. Health Canada must take action and enforce worker information requirements for pesticides."

Laura Bowman, lawyer, Ecojustice said:

“Frontline agricultural workers are highly exposed to pesticides and other toxic chemicals at work. They should have access to the same safety information that is available to workers exposed to hazardous chemicals in other contexts.

“Canada has failed to implement key pesticide safety provisions for agricultural workers, who are often migrant workers. These same workers suffer from inadequate labour and immigration protections that make it even more difficult for them to protect themselves from toxic chemicals at work. Health Canada must stop adding to this discriminatory and unequal situation by failing to implement worker information requirements for pesticides.”

Agricultural workers face dangerous health risks on the job

Agricultural workers face a complex array of systemic barriers to a safe, healthy workplace. Large farming operations are exempt from a wide array of standards that protect other workers from hazards.  In some provinces this includes exclusion from labour legislation and key provisions in occupational health and safety legislation.

Exposure to pesticides is a serious issue for agricultural workers. Even where workers do not use pesticides, the presence of pesticides in workplaces provides a potential route of exposure. Human studies continue to show high potential exposures to pesticides and increased rates of related chronic illnesses such as cancers among populations exposed through agricultural work.

Migrant agricultural workers at increased risk

Canada increasingly relies on migrant farm workers to grow fruits and vegetables. These workers are subjected to draconian immigration and labour rules that prevent them from protecting themselves.

In 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata, concluded that migrant workers (including those in the agricultural sector) were among groups vulnerable to  contemporary forms of slavery within Canada. 

A report from UFCW Canada emphasizes the increased and unique health and safety challenges faced by migrant workers due to their living and working conditions, lack of access to healthcare, and language barriers. Migrant farm workers have raised concerns regarding lack of access to information on chemicals used on farms and have reported acute and chronic symptoms of pesticide poisoning.

Enforcing the legal requirement to provide pesticide safety data sheets to employers is an important first step in ensuring that vulnerable workers’ right to know about chemical exposures on farms is actualized.