Migrant farmworker class action certified!
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has certified our class action against the Government of Canada on behalf of migrant agricultural workers. The proposed class of people to be included in the class action consists of all current and former migrant agricultural workers who are or were employed in Canada on a contract basis under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) on or after January 1, 2008.
The claim alleges that under the current design of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), migrant agricultural workers are subjected to “tied employment”, a condition originally imposed to prevent the integration of racialized farmworkers into Canadian society, among other discriminatory purposes. In 2009 and 2016, two House of Commons Standing Committees each recommended the elimination of tied employment because it leads to a power imbalance that is conducive to abuse. In 2023, a United Nations Special Rapporteur found that Canada’s system of tied employment makes workers vulnerable to modern forms of slavery.
Class members can spend the majority of their working lives contributing to the Canadian economy, while being denied the benefits, rights and entitlements accorded to comparable workers, including Employment Insurance (EI). The claim estimates that Canada has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in EI premiums from migrant agricultural workers and their employers over the past 15 years alone, while denying these workers the ability to access regular EI benefits because of tied employment.
The claim alleges that the imposition of tied employment on migrant agricultural workers violates section 7 of the Charter (depriving workers of their liberty and security of the person) and section 15 of the Charter (discriminating against workers based on their race, nationality and citizenship). The claim seeks to recover damages for violations of class members’ Charter rights, including the hundreds of millions of dollars in EI premiums Canada collected from class members while excluding them from accessing regular EI benefits.
On February 23rd, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified all of the proposed causes of action and approved the class action to proceed to the merits in all respects. Read a summary of the decision here.
News coverage of the class action can be found here.