Provincial government’s Fair and Family friendly Workplaces Act will affect non-family paid workers on farms and ranches
Farm workers in Alberta will have the option to unionize once new provincial government labour legislation is passed.
Labour minister Christina Gray announced amendments May 24 to the labour relations code and the employment standards code, dubbed the Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act.
The amendments reach into all employment sectors in the province and some will affect non-family paid workers on farms and ranches.
Agriculture minister Oneil Carlier said the right to unionize, including the right to strike, is available to other farm workers in Canada and the new legislation will bring Alberta into line with other provinces.
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“We see this as basically a right that is enjoyed by workers, every worker, across Alberta … a right that is held by every farm worker across Canada,” he said. “I think it’s really about time that Alberta farm workers had that right as well.”
Amendments to the two codes were the subject of round-table working groups established by the government after it introduced the controversial Bill 6, which later became the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act.
Members of the group tasked with amendments to the labour code agreed to disagree on allowing farm workers to unionize, noting fears about animal care and the crucial timing of various farming operations.
The new legislation thus has included Public Emergency Tribunal provisions, to be used “when there is a risk of imminent and irreversible damage to crops and/or livestock welfare in primary agriculture.”
Carlier said the tribunal would be able to act quickly should a strike or other work stoppage occur and cause harm at crucial times, such as seeding, harvest or calving.
Kent Erickson, co-chair of the Ag Coalition of farm groups formed in response to Bill 6, said the potential for labour disruption is a worry.
“The biggest concern that really came out from the ag sector was how that would affect livestock care and crop care, when you’re having living plants and animals that need to be tended to and the potential for delay,” he said.
“Those are the types of things that we have to look at. It’s a big piece of legislation.”
Erickson said May 25 that the coalition has had little opportunity to get feedback from its farmer members because many are still seeding the 2017 crop.
A closer look at the chapter and verse is planned in coming days.
“I believe that the wording is a little bit different in this legislation than what we had hoped,” he said.
“For the majority of producers, unionization isn’t a real-life issue that’s going to happen because we have maybe one or two employees. But at the same time, as soon as you let that component come into your sector … I think we stand strong in the fact that we really believe in healthy relationships.”
Ag coalition members on the labour working group also expressed the fear that an option for farm workers to unionize would alter the culture of the farm.
Carlier said he does not think that will be the case.
“I grew up on a farm myself in Saskatchewan where workers had the right … to join unions for decades and I don’t see a culture of farming much different in Saskatchewan than it is in Alberta,” he said.
“I think for a large part it’s because farmers and ranchers out there respect their workers, so workers by and large, I think they welcome the right to join unions if they so choose and its always their choice. But they might feel in the long term that there is no need because they are being treated fairly.”
Carlier said the Labour Relations Board will include a representative with a good understanding of agriculture. That was also a request of the agriculture members in the working group.
As for changes to the Employment Standards Act affecting non-family, paid farm workers, there are several, and most were agreed-upon recommendations from the working groups.
Minimum wage will apply but paid farm workers are exempt from overtime provisions and from standards around hours of work and breaks. They are to be given four days off every 28 days, with the employer deciding on the timing “at their convenience and within reason.”
Vacation pay will be calculated on total wages, not on hours of work.
Erickson said Ag Coalition members have to examine the economic implications of those changes before providing further comment.
“Anything that affects economics and doesn’t really play into the farm safety side, those are things we’re going to have to look at,” said Erickson.
Carlier said the new regulations come into effect Jan. 1, 2018, giving time for agricultural employers to educate themselves and their workers.
He acknowledged that Bill 6 and the subsequent act caused widespread concern in the farming community but said it has eased since first introduced.
“I think a lot of the angst that we heard from the farm and ranch community around how its going to affect the family farm and 4-H and that kind of thing, I really don’t believe that that exists anymore but I want to reiterate to people that this won’t in any shape or form change the culture around how children learn to be farmers, that work ethic, like all of us that grew up on farms grew to appreciate. It’s not going to change any of that.”
