The Canadian/Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme will come under review this week as the Ministry of Labour and the Civil Service hosts its review programme at the Savannah Hotel.

The meeting starts on today, December 4, and will involve several key Ministry personnel including Minister of Labour and the Civil Service, Rawle Eastmond; Permanent Secretary, Carston Simmons; Chief Liaison Officer in Canada, George Broome as well as farmer representatives and government officials from Canada. Jamaica’s Minister of Labour and Social Security, Derrick Kellier and Barbados’ High Commissioner to Canada, Glyne Murray, will also be in attendance.

Earlier this year, Mr. Eastmond accompanied by Mr. Simmons toured several farms in Canada, visited Barbadian workers and met with labour officials there. According to the GIS, he cited a number of concerns which were affecting Barbadian employment on the agricultural programme, particularly the availability of cheaper labour from Mexico and Russia.

Mr. Eastmond also expressed concern about the attitude of some of the younger agricultural recruits as well as the declining numbers enrolling in the programme, said the GIS. However, he noted that Barbadian workers were still held in high regard by Canadian employers and the challenge was training persons to meet this demand.
The agricultural programme employs hundreds of Barbadians at farms across Canada, but their numbers have declined to around 400 per year from around 600 just a few years ago, at a time, when the numbers from other countries are rising. They are recruited to harvest a variety of fruits and vegetables or they may work in food processing plants or greenhouses. They are also employed in various processes involved in the harvesting of tobacco and ginseng. (BGIS)

Some of the workers are also unhappy with the way the government deducts funds from 25% of their earnings, which are remitted to the Barbados government directly from Canada, including a total of five percent of total earnings kept by the government for administrative expenses. Some workers say that this amount is to high considering the fact that they already have deducted from their pay most of the costs of going to Canada, as well as pension contributions for both Barbados and Canada and medical contributions in Canada, although they claim the health service they receive is not up to the mark. With so many deductions and the fairly low rate of exchange for the Canadian dollar, some say it is no wonder that the number of workers going on the farm labour programme is declining.

In addition, the Auditor-General in his report for 2005, raised several troubling questions about the farm labour programme. For example, he wanted to know why there was a surplus of farm workers’ funds remaining undistributed, and why an assistant liaison officer was sent to supervise the programme before he received a work permit from Canada and thus was “unable to perform any duties”.

The auditor general also pointed out that the Liaison Officer in Toronto, appointed under a three-year contract in January 2005, had not been told how much he would have to pay toward his housing although “the contract stipulates that the officer should make a contribution to his housing”.

According to the auditor general, at the time of writing his report for 2005, Cdn$48,700 - or nearly Bds$87,000 – of farm workers’ money was still sitting on a Barbados government bank account, awaiting distribution.

The report said that the funds represented “unallocated savings of workers received from Canadian farmers during the Financial Year ending March 2004.”

The Auditor-General noted that QUOTE “the situation may have developed as a result of the Liaison Service not reconciling amounts due to workers with the outstanding bank balances,” UNQUOTE adding that QUOTE “the matter needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency in order for workers to receive the correct amounts due to them.” UNQUOTE