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OHS and Employment Standards investigating AHS report of foreign workers living/sleeping in Lethbridge Burger King basement

Jan 19, 2018 | 10:20 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The province’s Labour Ministry is now investigating the Health Inspection report from AHS that included descriptions of foreign workers living/sleeping/staying in the basement of a local Burger King in early January.

The statement from Christina Gray, Minister of Labour, is as follows:

“All Albertans deserve workplaces that are safe, fair and family-friendly. Any employer taking advantage of workers or putting worker safety at risk is completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated. Both Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and Employment Standards (ES) are investigating the allegations of sleeping/living accommodations for workers at this food establishment in Lethbridge. Alberta’s workplace laws apply equally to everyone, regardless of someone’s immigration status in Canada; our government takes this matter very seriously and will have more to say pending the results of both investigations.”

It’s not clear at this time, how long the investigations are expected to go on, or when the results of those investigations might be made public.

In a report, dated January 10, 2018, an inspector with AHS noted,

“Evidence of sleeping and/or living accommodations for foreign workers found in another (basement) room. This is in violation of section 17(1) of the Food Regulation , AR 31/2006 which states that: An operator must ensure that, before operation of the commercial food establishment commences, all its food handling areas are separated from living quarters and from other areas where activities are carried out that are incompatible with the safe and sanitary handling of food.”

The restaurant was given until Jan. 17, 2018 to remove all mattresses and furniture, to fix a broken pipe that had flooded the basement, and to clean up the debris associated with it. A storage room filled with unused equipment was also to be cleared.

Burger King Corporate sent out a statement indicating their representatives had spoken with the owner of the restaurant, listed as Sadiq Holdings Inc., who denied any such living/sleeping conditions had ever existed.

A manager at the 3 Ave South Burger King also told LNN there had simply been a ‘miscommunication’ between another manager who did not speak English very well, and the health inspector.

The order from AHS has now been rescinded.