An Environics poll commissioned by the Alberta Federation of Labour indicates 82 percent of Albertans think provincial labour laws should include farm workers.
The survey of 1,265 Albertans, conducted April 27, showed 55 percent strongly support extension of workplace protection laws to include agricultural workers and 27 percent somewhat support it.
Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said farm workers are either somewhat protected or not protected at all by current legislation.
AFL president Gil McGowan said the poll indicates a need for legislative change.
“Agricultural work is dangerous work. The law should reflect that,” he said in an April 28 news release.
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“Agricultural workers in Alberta don’t have the basic safety rights that every other worker in Alberta have. They don’t have the right to know about the dangers in a workplace. They don’t have the right to refuse unsafe work and because of the lack of these basic safety laws, too many agricultural workers are injured or killed on the job in Alberta.”
Derek Leebosh, vice-president of public affairs for Environics Research Group, said respondents were asked five questions in the poll. The number of rural versus urban respondents was not noted, he said, but of the 1,265 surveyed, 362 were from outside Calgary and Edmonton.
Pollsters asked respondents their opinion on one of two ways to ad-dress worker farm safety.
Fifty-nine percent said it was best addressed by having farm employers “face the same inspections and fines as employers in other sectors.”
The other option provided, to address it “through better workplace safety education programs,” was favoured by 34 percent.
A fourth question, “why hasn’t the Alberta government given agricultural workers basic workplace rights and protections?” provided two possible answers.
Fifty-eight percent said government was catering to the interests of big agri-business and 31 percent said government was trying to respect the unique needs of family farmers.
On the question of which political party would be most likely to implement farm worker protection, 52 percent said the New Democrats, 14 percent chose Wildrose, six percent chose Progressive Conservatives and four percent Liberals. Twenty-three percent had no opinion.
The poll’s gender split was 51 percent female and 49 percent male. Females responded more strongly to the question about extending coverage.
Leebosh said 62 percent of women agreed with coverage extension compared to 49 percent of men.
Margin of error in the survey is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
McGowan was critical in his statement about government inaction on the file.
“Over the last decade, there have been concrete promises of reform from the government, but to date nothing has been done,” he said.
“It’s time to take action on this. And it’s clear that the vast majority of Albertans would support a leader who took action, and who brought in workplace safety laws for agricultural workers.”
During the provincial election campaign, the Liberals and the New Democrats indicated support for inclusion of farm workers under labour legislation.
