No more illiterates for 'farm work'

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

PERSONS who are illiterate will no longer be allowed to participate in the Government's overseas work programme, commonly called 'farm work'.

"We have found that many persons applying to participate are not sufficiently literate and numerate," Derrick Kellier, the minister of labour and social security, told the House of Representatives in a statement yesterday. According to Kellier, "the literacy level of workers taking part in the overseas work programme of the ministry is of paramount importance to their safety".

"I want to encourage persons who wish to be a part of this programme to ensure that they prepare themselves adequately," Kellier told the House.

The minister's remarks came while he provided the House with an update on the accidental death of two Jamaican farm workers in Canada in 2010. Autopsies revealed that both men died of environmental suffocation.

Kellier said the families of the men have been compensated and charges laid against the employer. He, however, pointed out that even though the families were compensated under the ministry's Liaison Service Insurance Plan as well as by the Canadian authorities, it could not substitute for the loss of lives. The ministry, he said, has continued to provide psychological support to the families through regular visits and interventions by trained social workers.

The men, who were contracted to Filsinger's Natural Foods in Ontario, were instructed to pump cider from a large tank into a smaller one. The pump, however, malfunctioned and one of the workers then climbed into the tank to try to rectify the situation and was overcome by the fumes. His colleague, in attempting to rescue him, suffered a similar fate.