REGINA – The effect of Saskatchewan’s new labor regulations will likely be minimal for farmers, a business representative says.
But larger businesses will be affected, including those closely tied to agriculture, said Dale Botting of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“Mr. and Mrs. Farmer have very little to worry about in terms of these regulations,” Botting said. “The concern here is more for the agribusiness that supports the farm: the seed cleaning plant; the abattoir.”
The new regulations, which the provincial government wants to adopt by February, force employers to extend benefit plans and seniority rights to part-time workers.
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Farms aren’t bound
But businesses such as farms won’t be bound by the new rules unless they reach a set threshold level. If a business employs the equivalent of 10 full-time workers, their benefits must also be given to part-time employees, with coverage based on hours of work.
If a firm employs more than 50 full-time people, the employer will have to schedule part-time workers based on seniority.
Only workers who have worked for at least 26 weeks will be eligible for benefits or seniority provisions.
In the new labor standards act, passed last year, farmers are exempt from many provisions if all their employees are immediate family members.
While the general effect on farms is minimal, it’s a different story for larger agricultural businesses.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the province’s largest company, won’t have the new regulations applied to its grain operations (these are federally regulated), but livestock operations will be affected.
The pool’s livestock activities employ more than 120 part-time or casual workers, employee manager Jacques Pelletier said, so the company will be included under the new regulations.
This will hurt the company’s livestock operations, he said, because smaller competitors will not be bound by the same rules.
“They’ll be able to operate at a leaner level than we would because of our size,” Pelletier said. “It gives them a little bit of an advantage in the marketplace.”
Both the CFIB and the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce have opposed the new regulations. Botting calls the benefits and seniority provisions “unworkable” and thinks they have the potential to hurt more than help employees.
“Paperwork nightmare”
Not applying the benefits and seniority demands to companies with less than 50 employees is a recognition that small business would have difficulty handling the “paperwork nightmare,” Botting said.
But the chamber has opposed exempting small companies from the regulations if larger ones have to follow them.
