16 HOUSING


input from the BC Fruit Growers Association, something the association denies. “The city has not consulted so the only opportunity for response is at this hearing,” said Glen Lucas, general manager of the BCFGA. The lack of engagement


from the city frustrates him, especially as the association intends to participate in a consultation process the Central Okanagan Regional District is hosting on its own proposed seasonal worker housing bylaw. Several other municipalities


Housing regs for foreign workers is different than for domestic workers. FILE PHOTO Looking for HELP


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regulate farm worker housing or otherwise make provision for it in municipal policies, given its importance to local farming operations. A review of farm worker housing policies across the province the Community Social Planning Council commissioned in 2010 found that 26 municipalities and 16 regional districts had introduced or considered some manner of regulation of farm worker housing. Since then, additional work


has taken place. Kamloops considered the potential of regulating farm worker housing in 2012 and last year, the Cariboo Regional District adopted a policy that says “a building permit for ‘Farm Worker Housing’ shall not be unreasonably withheld.” Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, meanwhile, has identified a need to update bylaws to reflect provisions for farm worker housing.


Separate quarters Complicating the farm


worker housing issue are discussions aimed at resolving a complaint the United Food and Commercial Workers union filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal alleging the discriminatory


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MAY 2017 nfrom page 15


nature of the SAWP program. “Unless you specifically ask


for a woman, you’re getting a man,” explained Stan Raper, co-ordinator of the union’s migrant agricultural worker support programs. “There’s women that are more than willing to do farm work, and most of them are quite capable for doing the job. So we’re saying the system is flawed; it needs to be fixed.” BC Agriculture Council


executive director Reg Ens is leading industry’s efforts to resolve the complaint, which he says stems from worker housing requirements. “Under BC health


regulations, housing for work camps, you have to provide certain segregation of men and women,” Ens says. “If I’m requesting one worker come back that’s a male and my accommodation doesn’t have the segregation, I’m not going to ask for a female because I’ll be in breach of [the] legislation. … How do you practically bring those two regulations into harmony?” While there’s no sense of


how many female workers are not finding work through the program, Ens says about 4% of foreign farm workers in BC are women – more than in any other province. Growers like Driediger – whose entire workforce, domestic and foreign, is more than 60% women – says she would hire more if housing arrangements allowed it. She has a 21-person work camp with six trailers and a full kitchen, dining room, lounge and other facilities. Three rooms are singles and the other nine are doubles. “We would build another camp if we could, but I’m kind of out of room,” she said. “There’s a lot more to it than just the UFCW coming in and saying you have to hire more women.”


Union busting broken


ABBOTSFORD – United Food and Commercial Workers union claimed a small victory in January when the BC Labour Relations Board upheld the right of workers at Floralia Plant Growers Ltd. in Abbotsford to retain seniority between contracts. Workers unionized at Floralia in 2008 and recalls should


have occurred on the basis of seniority. Best practices in other jurisdictions recommend that employers give workers a formal reason if a worker won’t be rehired. Instead, non-unionized workers from another farm under the same ownership were brought in to do the work of unionized workers at Floralia. “This employer continues to try to find ways to work against these workers from returning to the union and bargaining collectively,” said Stan Raper, co-ordinator of the union’s migrant agricultural worker support programs. “We’ve been at the labour boards and in the courts since we unionized that farm. … I don’t know what more we can do to try and force the employer to live up to the obligations of the collective agreement which he signed.” Recall rights has been an issue at Floralia since 2011.


Prior to that, Floralia responded to workers’ unionization bid by sending 14 home the day after the unionization vote.


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