Grieving family members like the widow of a local Amazon worker who died after collapsing at work should get easy access to the results of investigations into such workplace tragedies, labour advocates say.
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It’s been one year since Paulo DeSouza Bezerra collapsed at work on Jan. 15, 2024, about an hour after a fire alarm forced staff out of the Talbotville mega-facility, south of London, for roughly 17 minutes in -20 C wind chill temperatures. The 51-year-old later died.
The Free Press reported this week that Ontario’s labour ministry completed in December its probe into the case, but that his grieving widow, Sheila Albuquerque, with whom he shared a baby boy, must file a freedom-of-information (FOI) request to get the results. That’s outrageous, one labour leader says.
“The fact that they (survivors) have to jump through loopholes in order to get the answers they need is completely unacceptable,” says Laura Walton, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, an umbrella group that represents unions.
Only the worker, the company and the union can be involved when the labour ministry shares information about the outcome of investigations. The Occupational Health and Safety Act does not include a role for families in the process.
Walton says it’s a “bureaucratic issue” that can be addressed by the labour ministry making amendments and including a worker’s next of kin in case of an emergency. “This is something that could easily be remedied, and I really hope, once the (labour) minister becomes aware of this, he does remedy this very, very quickly,”
The province’s website says a response to an FOI request can take 30 days and the individual can be contacted for clarifications, and a time extension may be required to process the request.
Terence Kernaghan is the NDP MPP for London North Centre. He calls the FOI requirement is a “cold and callous” way to control details and stop families like Albuquerque’s from being fully informed
“It’s utterly shameful,” Kernaghan said. “They have the results. And the fact that they’re making her file a freedom-of-information request about her loved one who has died . . . it’s beyond cold.”
Albuquerque said she will look into filing the freedom of information request when she returns to Canada from her native Brazil. She said she doesn’t understand how the process works and wishes there was an “easier and less complicated” way to know what happened, such as a conversation about the investigation’s results.
“It’s a lot,” she said. “Right now, I’m trying to find some peace so I can return (to Canada) with more energy,” Albuquerque told The Free Press in a recent interview. “2024 was a really difficult year.”
The couple, married for more than 24 years, emigrated to Canada from Brazil in 2010. They had their son a couple of years ago after many years of trying to start a family. The couple moved to London from Toronto in the summer of 2023 to find better jobs and housing. DeSouza Bezerra started working at Amazon in October 2023 when the sorting facility opened, three months before his death.
Jason Foster, a labour policy expert and professor at Athabasca University, says government officials could fix this situation with the stroke of a pen.
“The (labour) minister (David Puccini) does have the authority that, if they so chose, they could release it to her,” Foster said. “This is an example of how health and safety policy is often constructed from a technocratic, bureaucratic perspective, not taking into account what it means to be a worker trying to navigate the system.
“The only way we can know is to see the results of the investigation.”
In a statement to The Free Press on Thursday, Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said the company hasn’t received the government’s official report, but “cooperated fully with their investigation” and “followed the appropriate procedure when the event occurred.”
She added: “We continue grieving the loss of our colleague, and our thoughts remain with his family and loved ones.”