Labour Minister Christina Gray. Photo courtesy premierofalberta on Flickr

By Chantal Wagner

NDP critic for labour and immigration reacts to worker safety measures during COVID-19

Apr 17, 2020 | 4:53 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – There’s a total of 32 COVID-19 cases in Brooks as of Friday, April 17.

The province’s reporting system is running again following an outage this week.

The city of Brooks confirmed multiple cases at the JBS Food Canada packing plant yesterday.

It’s not known how many are cases from JBS at this time.

Meantime, the NDP’s Critic for Labour and Immigration says employers need to be working with their employees to find how they can keep their workers safe.

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Christina Gray says food and meat processing is a very unique environment.

And she says accommodations need to be met for worker safety by following the guidelines of our Chief Medical Health Officer.

Gray adds that it could mean shift changes, changing how transitions are happening, and cafeteria setups.

“What the government needs to be doing is making sure that they’re directly involved in helping to support employers, employees, AHS, and Occupational Health and Safety. All of these pieces need to be working together so that all parties can come into an agreement that the workplace is safe and that workers can go in and have the accommodations whether it’s PPE (personal protective equipment) or something else, so they feel comfortable about the work that they’re doing.”

Gray adds all workers deserve to be kept safe during this pandemic.

And all employers have the legal responsibility to do that to the best of their ability.

The province says it’s important to remember that COVID-19 is not a food-borne illness.

On the matter, a government release states:

“In Alberta, the first confirmed case occurred at a beef plant north of Calgary. The facility where the case was confirmed was shut down, halting production. Agriculture and Forestry immediately began working with the plant management, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the Ministry of Labour to resolve the issue. Specific, effective mitigation measures were put in place based on the advice of health and safety experts.

Since this first case, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry has continued to work with our partners, AHS and the CFIA to protect the health and safety of workers while ensuring a stable food supply in Alberta.

Together, we have established an intergovernmental business resumption protocol for provincially or federally licensed food processing facilities in Alberta. This protocol formalizes the cooperative approach used among the organizations to streamline the process while outlining the roles and responsibilities of CFIA, AHS and AF as we work to keep our food supply strong.

The principles of the protocol were applied at Cargill Beef when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed there on April 6. We are proud of the fact that this protocol has already proven effective in advance of it being formally signed by all parties. It also complements orders issued by Alberta’s chief medical officer of health under the Public Health Act.”

Gray adds, “If you have concerns about your health and safety, start talking to your manager and employer, but if your concerns are not being addressed you can call Occupational Health and Safety to ask questions or make a complaint.”