The Advocates Network (AN) has commended the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for deploying a Fact-Finding Team (FFT) to investigate the working conditions of Jamaican farm workers under the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme.

The AN appreciated the efforts made to establish a complete scope of the issues and concerns and reports that the team visited farms, and met with farm workers, and advocacy groups, among other duties.

However, the AN demands full disclosure and swift actions from the government.

According to the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), farm workers feel that the Jamaican government is not doing enough to protect migrant farm workers. One farmworker stated that they want the government to speak up and tell the Canadian government to give them permanent resident status to protect themselves from bad living and working conditions.

The Fact-Finding Team met with MWAC, which included advocates and current and former farm workers on October 23, 2022, and it was reported that it would take two to four weeks for a report consisting of findings and recommendations to be completed and submitted to the Minister of Labour and Social Security Karl Samuda, who would table the report in Parliament. However, it has now been more than four months, and no report has been tabled.

The AN notes that the Fact-Finding Team is awaiting confirmation on the number of injured farm workers to complete the report, and it is unclear whether this tally has been forwarded. The AN is concerned that at least two farm workers who met with the Fact-Finding Team were not invited back to work on the program and given no explanation.

The AN wants to know if there are mechanisms in place to assure that farm workers standing up for their rights do not face retaliation and how the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is protecting farm workers in light of this situation. The AN urges the government to take swift action to address the issues and concerns raised by the farm workers and advocates and to provide full disclosure on the findings and recommendations of the Fact-Finding Team.