Ottoniel Lares Batzibal’s family, a dead Guatemalan agricultural worker changing the tire of a farm van where he worked in 2021, will finally be compensated, after a decision of the court of appeal rendered on Thursday.
“The death of Mr. Batzibal is a professional injury,” concluded judge Julie Dutil in her judgment.
Ottoniel Lares Batzibal, a 38 -year -old Guatemalan agricultural worker, died in July 2021 after being crushed by a van while he was trying to change a tire in the workplace, at the Fortin Fortin Inc., In the Lotbinière region, in Quebec.
Despite his twelve seasons of work on the farm and his role as a driver to transport other workers, the Committee on Standards, Equity, Health and Occupational Safety (CNESST) had refused to recognize his death as a work accident, a decision confirmed in February 2023 by the Administrative Labor Court (TAT).
(Re) read “Death due to” benevolence “”
The decision, signed by judge Valérie Lizotte, had concluded that Mr. Batzibal’s intervention was a “benevolence”, and not a professional instruction. She judged that the change of tires did not fall into its official responsibilities, even if it had the authorization to use the vehicles of the farm.
However, the decision submitted Thursday declares that “small repairs […] could be made on the farm ”, although they are generally entrusted to garage owners.
Mr. Batzibal decided to repair a vehicle that suffered a puncture when he was driving it in the afternoon. “He was able to decide to immediately make the repair to ensure that the vehicle would be ready for work the next day, for the benefit of the employer for which he had been working for several years,” explains the decision.
In addition, judge Dutil specifies that the vehicle then collapsed on Mr. Batzibal due to a defective jack in the farm garage. “It is therefore by using a tool belonging to the employer to repair the tire of one of its vehicles at the workplace that the accident has occurred,” read.
Mr. Batzibal’s family, who remained in Guatemala, said he was devastated by the initial decision of the Administrative Labor Court. Deprived of the main economic support previously provided by the deceased, his widow and his daughter Mary Lares are now living in the sale of hand -woven textiles.
A life insurance payment of $ 50,000 made it possible to cover certain medical costs, including those linked to the disease and then to the death of the family’s youngest.
Judge Dutil proposed in her Thursday judgment to return the file to the CNESST, to determine the amount of the compensation provided to the family.
With information from Ariane Krol, Daphné Cameron and Philippe Teisceira-Lessard The press
