New report raises concerns about lack of safety, wages and respect for female, South Asian farm workers on Fraser Valley farms
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Avneet Sidhu was seven years old when her mother died on the way to her job as a farm worker in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, after her employer’s overloaded van crashed.
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Nearly two decades later, Sidhu said safety improvements are still needed to protect B.C. farm workers, and she continues to push for change as a community advocate in a South Asian legal clinic.
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“It’s still precarious labour,” said Sidhu, the daughter of Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu, one of three female agricultural workers killed in 2007 near Abbotsford. “What we would want people to realize and understand is that (farm workers) are human beings. They have families to go back to every single day.”
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A new report, to be released Wednesday, tells the story of 20 South Asian female farm workers in the Fraser Valley, and concludes “they are routinely denied basic workplace safety protections,” such as access to clean washrooms and drinking water.
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“We were shocked to find that despite all the dizzying technological changes our world has seen in recent years, South Asian farm-worker women in B.C. are still growing our food under archaic labour conditions,” said co-author Anelyse Weiler, University of Victoria associate sociology professor who researches safety hazards facing workers. “(Canadians) want to see a really strong local food economy, but that doesn’t need to come at the expense of workers’ dignity.”
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The report, done in partnership with the B.C. Society for Policy Solutions, found people who harvest, can or pack berries and vegetables, or work in ornamental nurseries, face high injury risks and low pay.
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“Most earned less than $25,000 annually,” the report says.
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It makes 11 recommendations mainly directed at the provincial government and WorkSafeBC, calling for changes in labour policy, wage structures and workplace inspections.
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In an email Tuesday, the Labour Ministry said it gathers feedback from the agricultural sector “on how policy and programs can be further improved,” and added it would review the report after its release Wednesday.
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WorkSafeBC, in an email, said it conducted 8,471 agricultural inspections between 2021 and 2025 to ensure farms are following safety rules. There is no fixed schedule for farms, but inspections are done proactively during busy seasons, as followups to previous problems, or triggered by complaints.
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Concerns have existed for years about the safety of these workers, who are often new to Canada and may not speak English, and some safety improvements have been made, especially in response to the 2007 van crash.
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Sidhu’s mother was in a 15-person van packed with 17 people, which had only two seatbelts, wooden benches instead of seats, and deflated tires. It flipped on Highway 1 near the Sumas exit and the driver, a contractor who places labourers on farms, didn’t have a proper driver’s licence.
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“We nearly never see those types of vans transporting farm workers anymore,” Sidhu said. She added they’ve been replaced by minibuses or other types of vehicles approved for large groups.
