Richmond Hill
September 27, 2008 10:24 PM
Keely Grasser
Grounds employees at Elgin Mills Cemetery are back on the job after walking off the site Wednesday afternoon.
Employees refused to work after a company began spraying the grounds, which is managed by the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries.
Employees called the Labour Ministry to investigate claims their workplace was unsafe.
The ministry investigated Wednesday night and determined the workplace safe and that the spraying was performed with government-approved chemical by a licensed applicator, said Rick Cowan, Mount Pleasant’s assistant vice-president of marketing and communications.
Mr. Cowan and union representative Willie Wham agre employees ere offered the chance to go home while herbicides were applied, but Mr. Wham said employees were concerned if it would be safe to return to the cemetery in subsequent days.
Because the ministry concluded herbicide application was in compliance with what Mount Pleasant is allowed to use, Mr. Cowan said employees can’t refuse to return to work despite the fact pesticides were used, noting cemeteries are exempt from pesticide/herbicide bans under strict guidelines.
The company did everything it “could have done or should have done” in the situation.
“At that point, the employees were asked if they were intent on coming to work (the next day), and they said, ‘yes’,” Mr. Cowan said.
Employees exercised their right to refuse work, hoping the spraying would stop, but it didn’t happen.
“We were very, very sad for that situation,” he said.
“(The ministry) seems to think that if there’s no blood on the ground or bones broken, that it’s a safe situation. The guy just didn’t see past that,” Mr. Wham said, adding he will meet this week with national representatives of the Canadian Automobile Workers’ union, to which the cemetery union belongs.
The union has the option of appealing the ministry’s report or filing a grievance on the issue.
“We won’t be leaving the issue,” he said.