A Toronto factory that uses temporary workers to churn out millions of bagels and croissants for major grocery stores and fast-food chains has hired an independent auditor to review its use of temp agencies and its health and safety practices.“We’re committed to the well-being of everyone that comes into our facilities, all workers,” said David Gelbloom, lawyer and human resources manager for Fiera Foods, an industrial bakery where a Star reporter went undercover as a temp worker earlier this year.“We’ve hired an independent, senior HR professional who is going to audit our HR, going to look at our procedures, health and safety, our workplace.”Gelbloom said Thursday that Fiera Foods had also hired an independent auditing company “to audit our use of temp agencies and to audit the agencies themselves.”He refused to give the name of the HR professional or the auditing company conducting the internal reviews.Fiera’s announcement of the internal audit came the same day the company pleaded guilty to Ministry of Labour charges related to the death of 23-year-old temp agency worker Amina Diaby.Read more:I went undercover in a Toronto factory where a temp worker died. Here’s what I foundOne year after this temp agency worker died at Fiera Foods, family is still searching for answersNDP slams Liberals on temp workThe company was fined $300,000 under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, plus a 25-per-cent victim surcharge, following a joint submission with the Crown. (The surcharge does not go directly to the victim’s family, but is added to a general government fund to assist victims of crime.)The fine is double what the company paid in 2002 following the death of 17-year-old temp Ivan Golyashov.Diaby, a refugee from Guinea in West Africa, was working at Fiera’s Marmora St. factory Sept. 2, 2016, when her hijab became “entangled” in machinery, strangling her. She was hire ...
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