Grain elevator companies could lose more than 300 hours a year in unpaid overtime because of changes to the Canada Labor Code.
Legislative changes to the code, which became effective Feb. 1, mean grain companies will no longer be exempt from paying overtime to elevator employees who work more than the standard 40-hour week.
Hugh Wagner, general secretary of the Grain Services Union, which represents half of the 4,000 grain elevator workers on the Prairies, called it a move toward a “family-friendlier” workplace.
“They will no longer have to work overtime for free,” he said, adding the union has fought for a 40-hour week since the 1940s.
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In 1979 the grain industry was exempted from Canada Labor Code rules requiring overtime pay for time worked in excess of eight hours a day, 40 hours a week.
Instead, during 10 weeks in the spring and 10 weeks in the fall, elevator workers could work an additional eight hours per week without receiving overtime pay.
In 1997, the federal government appointed a one-person commission of inquiry headed by Stephen Kelleher to review the regulations. In July 1998, the government accepted the commission’s recommendation to end the exemption on Jan. 31, 2001.
Wagner estimated some elevator agents and assistants annually worked an additional 300 to 400 hours beyond the 2,080 hours of a typical 40-hour-week schedule.
No undoing
Saskatchewan labor lawyer Neil McLeod said a legal challenge by grain companies is not likely because it is a legislative change. Most lobbying to retain the exemption would have already been done, he added.
He said it could mean operational problems and higher costs during busy seasons for grain companies.
Diane Wreford, manager of communications for Agricore, said grain companies anticipated the outcome and had already started making changes in schedules to avoid increased costs.
“Everyone knew about it and worked it into the plan,” she said, citing changes in contracts signed with the GSU in 1999. Agricore employs grain workers in Manitoba and Alberta.
The industry’s exemption was originally based on its status as an essential service whose workload increased with busy times on the farm. In recent years, the union argued the jobs had changed as the grain business evolved, and that the workers should be entitled to the same set of rights offered to other workers under the Canada Labor Code.
Western Producer reporters are members of a different local of the Grain Services Union.
