Tribunal rules in favour of injured migrant workers seeking more compensation

Six years after a devastating injury on an Ontario farm, Leroy Thomas says he's finally feeling hopeful about the future.

Six years after a devastating injury on an Ontario farm, Leroy Thomas says he’s finally feeling hopeful about the future.

The former seasonal worker from Jamaica dislocated his spine while working at a Simcoe, Ont., tobacco farm in 2017, an injury that left him unable to continue as an agricultural worker and in deep financial distress after his compensation for being injured on the job ran out after 12 weeks.

Now, after Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal found that he and injured migrant workers in similar situations deserved better treatment, Thomas says he feels optimistic at last.

“I was devastated, I’ve faced hungry times, it’s been the roughest time of my life. But now I feel a bit better,” the 48-year-old said in a phone interview from Jamaica.

“I feel like justice has been served.”

When asked about the tribunal ruling delivered this month, Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board said it will be conducting a review of how claims for people in the federal Seasonal Agricultural Worker program are handled.

Thomas, who began working as a seasonal migrant worker on Ontario farms in 2001, was getting on a wagon while working on a farm in 2017 when he fell. He heard a snap in his back as he landed on concrete and was in excruciating pain. His employer took him to a hospital where he learned he had dislocated his spine.

Thomas said he was repatriated after the injury because it prevented him from continuing to work on the farm. Once back in Jamaica, he said he could not afford to continue medical treatment because the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board stopped long-term income loss benefits after 12 weeks.