One-third of Saskatchewan farm workers without coverage | Committee recommends all workers be covered under the Workers’ Compensation Act
A committee has recommended that farming be included among the compulsory occupations covered by the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board.
The committee, which conducted the quadrennial review of the province’s Workers’ Compensation Act, submitted its report to provincial labour minister Don Morgan in early December.
Among its 57 recommendations is that the Workers’ Compensation Act apply to all employees in the province with no exclusions, which the report notes is “a very major shift in the workers’ compensation system in Saskatchewan.”
WCB chief executive officer Peter Federko said the recommendation would have far-reaching consequences.
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“What this recommendation would mean, as I understand it, is all em-ployees in all industries would be required to be covered,” he said.
“Specifically to the industry of farming, if somebody in the agricultural sector — a farmer — has employees, they would be considered an employer and would be required to provide coverage to those employees.”
Farmers and ranchers in Saskatchewan can now purchase workers’ compensation coverage, as well as coverage from private insurers.
The report highlights concerns about private insurance: employers may not provide it because it’s not required, and the costs for coverage can increase following “even just one very major event.”
Manitoba already has mandatory coverage, while Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers “very narrowly” passed a resolution in favour of the change in 2011.
“Anytime regulation is imposed on farmers or businesses, there’s always a push back,” said WRAP president Humphrey Banack.
“The push back was not from the fact of recognizing the risk. Virtually everyone at the convention recognized the risk.”
The Saskatchewan report recommends updating the Workers’ Compensation Act to reflect changes to the agriculture industry since the legislation was introduced in the late 1970s.
“Many exclusions may have come about for historical reasons that are no longer relevant in the industrial structures of the 21st century,” the report said.
“Most agricultural production is now part of the global economy and is undertaken on a large scale very different from the traditional family farm. Workers are doing paid jobs in a sector where serious injuries and even fatalities are, unfortunately, not rare.”
According to the report, more than 30 percent of workers in Saskatchewan did not have coverage in 2009. It cites Occupational Health and Safety statistics that approximately 14 work-related deaths occur annually in farming and ranching, and that the agricultural sector accounts for more than one-third of all work-related fatalities.
More than 200 injuries in the sector require hospitalization in the province annually.
“Lack of WCB coverage means that uncovered employers are burdening the general medical system with health care costs that covered em-ployers must pay for, thereby creating an uneven playing field,” said the report.
Banack said it can be difficult making the WCB system work with the unique and sometimes flexible aspects of agricultural work. The number of employees on a farm can vary over the course of a harvest.
“Their programs are kind of like putting a square peg in a round hole and there’s a little work we have to do around those edges to make it fit because we are a different industry.”
Banack uses WCB coverage for his farm and said it’s worth considering.
“We should make sure that we have those employees covered,” he said. “It’s a conscientious right to do it.”
