Workplace Safety and Prevention Services

Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) offer resources and consulting services to help farmers and other agri-food businesses provide safe workplaces and improve the effective management of the risk of COVID‑19.

Learn more about COVID‑19 resources for agriculture from the WSPS.

You can also call 1-877-494-9777 to speak to a customer service representative or e-mail customercare@wsps.ca.

The Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA) is maintaining a COVID‑19 resource library for international agricultural workers and employers. This is a comprehensive list of COVID‑19 resources to support international agricultural workers and employers in Ontario during the pandemic. Many resources in the library are available in English, Spanish and Thai.

This section will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.

Wage assistance programs

The Ontario and federal governments provide financial assistance programs that you or your workers can access if a public health authority has directed your workers to stop working (self-isolate, etc.) due to COVID‑19.

Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

The WSIB provides wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and return to work services for workers in Ontario. Here’s how it works:

  • If one of your workers is showing symptoms of COVID‑19 or has been diagnosed with COVID‑19, they should tell you about their illness, and any medical treatment received, right away and file a claim to determine eligibility for WSIB coverage. Should the claim be allowed, and you continue to pay your staff their wages, the WSIB will reimburse you up to 85 per cent of the employee’s net average earnings.
  • If a worker believes they were exposed to COVID‑19 while at work, but are not showing symptoms or have not received a diagnosis, they should file an exposure incident form.

For more information, please contact 1-800-387-0750.

Additional information:

Government of Canada

For information about the financial supports available for individuals please visit Canada’s COVID‑19 Economic Response Plan, or contact the federal government’s information line at 1-833-966-2099.

For information about Employment Insurance, please contact the federal government’s Employment Insurance call centre at 1-800-206-7218.

Leaves under the Employment Standards Act (ESA)

Depending on the circumstances, there are unpaid, job-protected leaves provided under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) that might apply to an employee.

Infectious Disease Emergency Leave - On March 19, 2020, Ontario passed the Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2020 introducing the Infectious Disease Emergency Leave to protect the jobs of employees who take an unpaid leave for certain reasons related to COVID‑19. This leave is available to employees who are not performing the duties of their position for certain reasons related to COVID‑19 including:

  • personal illness
  • quarantine or isolation in specified circumstances
  • concern by the employer that the employee may expose other individuals in the workplace to COVID‑19
  • to provide care or support to certain family members for a reason related to COVID‑19, including school or day care closures, or due to certain travel-related restrictions

Sick Leave - Under the ESA, most employees who have been employed for two consecutive weeks have the right to take up to three days of unpaid job-protected leave each calendar year due to a personal illness, injury or medical emergency. This is known as sick leave.

To learn more about ESA leaves please visit ontario.ca/esaguide.

Temporary help agencies

If you need to supplement your workforce using temporary help agencies, it is critical that you seek workers from legitimate and compliant temporary help agencies. The integration of help agency workers on farms creates new risks for COVID‑19 transmission and, in some cases, has contributed to outbreaks on farms. Some help agencies are unaware of their responsibilities when it comes to providing safe and fair working conditions. Both employers—the farm and the help agency—have responsibilities for worker safety.

Ask the agency about the measures they are taking to ensure their workforce is safe and make sure that they are willing to provide you with full names and contact information for every person that will be coming on your property. This should include confirmation that workers will only be working at one operation or as few operations as possible. Upon arrival, temporary agency workers should be cohorted separately from other existing cohorts of workers.

Another way of protecting yourself is to make sure the temporary help agency is registered and in good standing with the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB). This is one indicator of the employer’s commitment to worker health and safety.

You can ask the agency to see a copy of the agency’s WSIB certificate or refer to this list of temporary employment agencies (that supply workers to the agriculture sector) that are registered with WSIB as of March 2022 (Excel).

Please note that registration with the WSIB is not indicative of compliance with other requirements of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA), Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) or other provincial legislation. This list does not constitute or imply an endorsement or recommendation of these employers by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development or the WSIB.

Businesses should also be aware that the Employment Standards Act, 2000 has joint and several liability provisions that may mean that, if the temporary help agency supplying you with labour does not pay its employees, you could be held liable for those employees’ wages.

Find out more on what you need to know when hiring contract workers.