Compensation likely after J’can farmworker killed in Canada
Published:Friday | August 26, 2022 | 12:10 AM
The family of Garvin Yapp, the Jamaican farmworker who was fatally injured while operating tobacco-harvesting equipment in Ontario, Canada, may be entitled to compensation.
Yapp was employed under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Programme (SWAP), which gives Jamaicans the opportunity to work on farms in the United States and Canada.
The 57-year-old from Tangle River district in St James worked for the Van Berlo family on Berlo’s Best Farm in Norfolk County.
Colette Roberts Risden, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, said that the nature of Yapp’s death may merit compensation.
“Normally in a situation like that, the worker does receive some form of compensation. I can’t tell you what it is,” the permanent secretary told The Gleaner Tuesday.
Attempts by The Gleaner to contact the Van Berlo family have been unsuccessful.
Roberts Risden said that if Yapp has children under the age of 18 years old, they would receive a monthly allowance until they reach adulthood.
Additionally, if any of his children are in university, they would be gifted a monthly allowance until age 21, she said.
Roberts Risden noted, however, that she could not comment on the quantum of compensation or a timeline for its issuance.
The Government of Jamaica has made contact with Yapp’s employer and other workers at the Canadian farm through its liaison service.
“The employer is actually deeply devastated because this is a worker that the employer, whenever he visits Jamaica, would occasionally stay at this worker’s house. So that tells you that this worker was almost, I would say, more than an ordinary worker to the employer,” she said.
A vigil was held last week Thursday, Roberts Risden confirmed, adding that Canada-based representatives from the labour ministry were also in attendance.
Yapp’s death is still under investigation by Canadian government authorities.