Armando Lazo Bautista V. Ivanhoé Faille

2021 QCTAT 5854
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Final judgment
Canada, Québec

Farm/rural workers
Armando Lazo Bautista
Farmers
Michel Pilon

Administrative
Herbicide, , Organophosphate, Fungicide
Overturn the decision rendered by the Standards, Equity, Health and Safety Commission on July 2, 2019
Tribunal administratif du travail (Labour Administrative Court) of Québec, Canada
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December 3, 2021
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Accueille la contestation d'Armando Lazo Bautista, infirme la décision rendue par la Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail le 2 juillet 2019, à la suite d’une révision administrative; déclare que le travailleur a subi une lésion professionnelle le 8 août 2016, soit un lymphome folliculaire de grade 1 à 2, et qu’il a droit aux prestations prévues à la Loi sur les accidents du travail et les maladies professionnelles.
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In a judgment of December 3, 2021, the Administrative Labor Court of Richelieu-Salaberry recognized the non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosed in August 2016 in Armando Lazo Bautista, a temporary foreign agricultural worker, as being directly related to the specific risks of his job. He was spraying pesticides without protection from 2012 to 2016 on an apple and blueberry farm.

Without the possibility of application of the presumption of occupational injury for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which is not listed in Schedule 1 of the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases, the judge referred to Article 30 of the Act which stipulates that the worker must demonstrate that his illness is characteristic of the work he performed or that it is directly related to the specific risks of this work. In this case, the proof that the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is directly linked to the particular risks of his job as a farm worker is provided by the exposure to the multiple pesticides he was led to use, and by the lack of protection provided by his employer.

The Court therefore annulled the decision of inadmissibility rendered by the Commission for standards, equity, health and safety of the claim for occupational disease on the grounds that the claim for recognition of occupational disease was out of time, and recognized the plaintiff's rights to the benefits and compensation provided for under Law A-3.001 on industrial accidents and occupational diseases.