RED DEER, Alta. – A wage survey will be conducted this spring for Alberta pork producers who claim salaries for foreign workers are too high.
Alberta producers must pay foreign workers a wage determined by the federal government labour market information (LMI) guidelines.
These are regularly updated and vary from region to region. In recent months the increases have gone beyond what many farmers feel they can afford to pay, said Alan Dooley of Alberta Agriculture.
“We have seen in Red Deer over the last couple of months the wages they have asked producers to pay increased by about $2 an hour,” said Dooley at an Alberta Pork spring meeting held in Red Deer March 15.
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“The industry feels those wages are too high,” he said.
Alberta Employment and Immigration conducts wage surveys every two years and Alberta Pork has requested an extension to assess what 120 producers are paying their staff.
Wage surveys encompass all of agriculture labour but do not separate what workers on hog farms are paid. Farmers can expect to be contacted in April or May. All information will be confidential.
When the Alberta economy was booming in 2004, foreign workers were brought in to ease the labour shortage experienced across the province. A wage grid for hog farm workers was negotiated between the producers and Service Canada, said Mark Chambers of Sunterra Farms at Acme.
The system worked well until 2009, when the economy faltered and the pork industry lost money every quarter. Service Canada said the grid would no longer apply and farmers would have to use the labour market information guidelines instead.
“We were told a wage survey had to be done because that was the only way to change the LMI numbers,” said Chambers.
An unskilled worker could be paid between $14.42-$15.83 per hour based on the region. Skilled staff is paid $15.83-$18.65, said Chambers.
“It becomes uncompetitive, depending where your barn is,” he said.
An immigration consultant has also been hired to negotiate between Service Canada and farmers to bring the wages more in line with what they can afford.
“We all agree some guys can start at $14 an hour and within two years they won’t be any better but others can start at $14 and within six months they are worth $16,” he said.
In addition, pork producers want to discuss work permits with the federal government because at this point people can only enter the country for 12 months.
Some are reluctant to accept such a short contract, making it difficult to find workers.
