A Filipino worker was crushed to death by a machine as he cleaned it in an industrial bakery in Ontario, Canada last September 25.
Enrico Miranda, 57, is the fifth temporary worker to die in an accident at Fiera Foods since 1999, reported The Toronto Star.
The family was distraught to hear from other factory workers that they didn’t stop production in the wake of his death, according to the report.
The police have told them Miranda’s chest was fatally crushed in the accident, but other information flows in trickle from the authorities.
“It’s unbelievable in a very developed and rich country,” says Miranda’s eldest son Richard.
His youngest son Patrick, 26, first learned of his father’s fatal accident, after police knocked on the family’s apartment door on the evening of Sept. 25.
Miranda flew to Dubai in 1988 and worked in the emirate as a civil engineer. Although he was earning enough, he had chosen to fulfill his simple aspiration: to finally be together with his family.
In 2004, he migrated to Canada to be with his wife Tay, who works there as caregiver. Their sons Richard and Patrick were also petitioned for by Tay in 2009.
For 10 years, however, despite his lengthy experience as a civil engineer in Dubai, Miranda would never land a permanent job in Canada. During his entire stay, he worked as a temporary worker.
According to his family, he had been requesting the company to absorb him as a permanent worker but to no avail.
Until the time of his death, the Filipino also had to swallow the bitter pill of being a ‘temp worker’.
Temp agency workers in Canada only take home their paychecks but not much protection from government.
The current Ontario government also reversed the recently enacted mandate that aims to give more rights to temp agency workers like Miranda. This includes equal pay as a permanent employee.
Miranda’s family will return to the Philippines together for the first time after almost four years. But this time, it would be to lay him to rest.
As of this posting, the incident has still no clarity or closure in sight. (MN)
