The puzzling death of two agricultural workers

Sunday, March 4, 2012

No one will ever really know why, two years ago, a worker climbed into a tank filled with deadly fumes to fix a faulty pump, says one of the farm's operators  

by SUSAN MANN

The two Jamaican workers who died on an Ayton-area farm almost two years ago did receive training on enclosed space dangers and were warned by other employees not to enter a vinegar tank immediately before they did, says Shaun Becker.

Becker, one of the operators of Filsinger's Organic Foods & Orchards, says he doesn't know why Paul Roach, 44, decided to act as he did – grab a ladder from a scrap-metal pile located outside of the building where the tank was housed, take it back to the tank, climb up it on the outside of the tank while taking another ladder with him, squeeze through a 15-inch opening and use that ladder to shimmy down into the tank. Almost immediately after entering, Roach passed out. Ralston White, 36, also died Sept. 10, 2010, after trying to save Roach.

After a Ministry of Labour investigation into the two deaths, 32 charges under Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act were laid against Shaun Becker, Debra Ann Becker, Cory Richard Becker, the farm's operators, and supervisor Brandon Weber. In January, the Crown dropped most of the charges in exchange for Weber pleading guilty to one charge of failing to take reasonable precautions to protect the safety of workers. He was fined $22,500.

Becker says the workers had been trying to remove a foot of vinegar at the bottom of tank, but were experiencing problems with the pump they had lowered into the tank. They pulled it out to check and lowered it down again. It still didn't work.

Two other workers, including White, told Roach just before he entered the tank not to go in, Becker says. None of the farm's operators had instructed Roach to fix the pump while it was in the tank, he adds: "Nobody knows why really he decided to do this."

Roach had worked on the farm for seven years. All of the farm's workers received training and were instructed never to enter the vinegar tanks. No one had ever entered the vinegar tanks before Roach did. "We did everything we could possibly do," Becker says.

Becker says it was suggested they should have had a bar over the vinegar tank's 15-inch opening, so no one could possibly squeeze into it. But the bar would still have to be removed for the tank to be cleaned.

In a Jan. 11 press release, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of Canada called the agreement reached by the Beckers and the Crown attorney a "tragic insult to the victims' families and to the safety rights of all farm workers in Ontario. The message to the agricultural community is that, if you pay a few dollars, safety can be ignored when it comes to the life of a farm worker."

Becker says it's not like that on their 100-acre farm, where they grow organic apples and pears and process apple cider and vinegar. "We took this very hard," he says, noting that their farm workers are like family.

Becker says the Roach and White families have received money from the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and "we've set up a trust fund where we do fundraising for their kids" for their education.

Stan Raper, the union's agricultural worker co-ordinator, says the union will be renewing its calls for a coroner's inquest into the workers' deaths. Chris Ramsaroop, organizer with Justice for Migrant Workers, a migrant worker advocacy group, says they'll also be repeating their request for an inquest. But Cheryl Mahyr, spokesperson for the Coroner's Office, says they won't be calling one.

Raper and Ramsaroop both say they want the province to attach specific regulations on enclosed spaces to the province's Occupational Health and Safety Act rather than the guidelines that are there now for the farming industry. The Act was extended to cover farm workers in 2006.

Matt Blajer, spokesperson for the Labour Ministry, says that, although the specific regulation on enclosed spaces doesn't apply to farming, currently all employers "are required to take every precaution that's reasonable in the circumstances to protect the worker."

Asked why enclosed space regulations weren't attached to the Act for the agricultural industry, Blajer says "they just weren't." He doesn't know if they will eventually be attached. "That would be a decision that would have to be made by the government."

The requirement to have the bar over the opening of the vinegar tank, he adds, falls under the industrial regulations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and "they do not apply to farming operations."

But farm employers must still take every reasonable precaution to protect workers, he adds. For safety guidelines around manure tanks, pits and tankers, Blajer says farmers should contact the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, which is an amalgamation of the Farm Safety Association, the Industrial Accident Prevention Association and the Ontario Service Safety Alliance. The organizations merged in 2010.

Dean Anderson, chair of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, points out that in the Filsinger case, Roach and White were employed by people who farm and also manufacture apple cider and vinegar. Because they were working in the farm's cider vinegar manufacturing facility at the time of the accident, the workers were classified industrial. That's why the charges fell under the full Occupational Health and Safety Act with its industrial regulations, he says.

The workers' deaths do raise awareness about the hazards of enclosed spaces, he adds. "It does help in getting the message out to people." BF