The provincial government’s move to protect farm workers is receiving positive feedback from labour groups.
In a press release, the Christian Labour Association of Canada said it “applauds the Alberta government’s initiative to encourage a culture of safety in the farm industry and to affirm the rights of farm workers to organize with the announcement of Bill 6, the Increased Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act.”
Under the proposed legislation, workers in Alberta’s agricultural sector will be able to refuse unsafe work without fear of losing their jobs. They will be able to join a union and access employment standards such as minimum wage, overtime, vacation pay, and hours of work. Bill 6 was introduced Nov. 17 in the Alberta legislature and could become law by January.
“If passed, Alberta would join every other jurisdiction in Canada in applying workplace legislation to Alberta’s farms and ranches,” Alberta Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson told the legislature.
The move couldn’t come soon enough for Philippa Thomas, a 56-year-old Cochrane resident who was permanently injured in 2006 while working as a farm worker at an area equestrian facility. She suffers from complex regional pain syndrome in her right arm that is now spreading to her left arm. She has spinal-cord stimulator in her back and is currently off major pain-killers so she can try other treatments.
“It’s a good first step. But it’s going to take some time,” she said of legislation affecting more than 50,000 people employed in Alberta’s agricultural sector.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s going in the right direction. But I am not backing off this until everything is put to bed. If it takes a couple years to put to bed, fine. I’ll be with it. I’m not abandoning this thing. This is my life now. I’m disabled because of an accident like this.”
She insists she’s not lobbying for these changes on her own behalf.
“I never did this for me. I did this for the next 14-year-old girl that goes to work in a barn with horses, which we all know the girls want to do that, and then gets hurt beyond repair,” Thomas said.
She also appreciates the challenges farmers and ranchers are facing with this new legislation.
“I know in the farming world, there will be some fine-tuning,” she admitted. “Because harvest time and seeding time, that end of agriculture, is labour intensive.”
Over the next six weeks, the government plans to consult farmers, ranchers and industry groups to get their input before developing detailed occupational health and safety rules for farms and ranches by 2017.
Last year, there were 25 deaths reported on Alberta farms.
