WorkSafe inspectors found 18 alleged violations at Purewal Blueberry Farms, including: Failing to notify and investigate a workplace accident and Disturbing an accident scene! WorkSafe BC is now considering an administrative penalty against Purewal Bros.
PITT MEADOWS – WorksafeBC has found several alleged safety violations on a Pitt Meadows blueberry farm owned by a prominent Indo-Canadian farming family, where a worker was injured earlier this month, CBC News reported.
Purewal Blueberry Farms, reputed to be North America’s largest blueberry operation, admitted it failed to report an incident in April in which worker Gurdev Khakh suffered a mangled leg and dislocated shoulder after herbicide tank fell on him and doused him with chemicals.
The well known Purewal farms operation is owned by Purewal Brother Enterprise Ltd. which also owns 1,000 acres of farmland in Pitt Meadows.
Khakh, 68, who said he came forward to tell CBC News his story after farm officials failed to report the accident to WorksafeBC, also claimed that an ambulance wasn’t called until two hours after the incident.
“I was screaming,” says Khakh, through a translator. His co-workers shouted for help. It took two men to lift the tank off Khakh.
The day after the CBC News story aired, WorksafeBC investigators visited the farm for two consecutive days of inspections.
The inspectors found 18 alleged violations, including:
*Failing to notify and investigate a workplace accident.
*Disturbing an accident scene.
*Improper protection from pesticides.
*Improper first aid procedures.
Khakh, who received a compensation of $5000 from Purewal Blueberry Farms, which paid him after the story became public, said he’s glad he spoke up.
“If there is another incident tomorrow, when I’m not here, other workers will know that I fought back and benefitted,” Khakh said through a Punjabi translator.
“This is not Canada,” Khakh told the Pitt Meadows News, as he wobbles to stand with a broken knee.
He says the rights that Canadians cherish don’t seem to apply when he steps onto the fields to work for one of North America’s largest blueberry.
“In city, it’s different rules,” he says, in broken English.
He was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital where he had surgery on his leg and spent a month recovering. He now walks with a limp.
“I’m broken forever,” he says.
Gary Purewal, who owns the farm, said he is co-operating with WorkSafe B.C. but did not comment on the inspection report findings.
The WorkSafe report describes conditions at Purewal Bros. which employs around 100 people – mostly Indo-Canadian and Mexican workers – at a sprawling operation in Pitt Meadows.
WorkSafe BC is now considering an administrative penalty against Purewal Bros.
Khakh didn’t even know about WorkSafe BC. It was a taxi driver who took Khakh to hospital who connected him with Indo-Canadian activist and community leader Charan Gill, president of the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, who has since helped Khakh file a claim.
Gill, who co-founded the Canadian Farmworkers Union, told PItt Meadows News he has been hearing similar complaints from farm workers from across the province for years.
“These workers don’t even know they can refuse to work in a dangerous place or go into a bus that is overloaded,” says Gill.
“They don’t know their rights and responsibilities.”
