Saskatchewan is putting its labor standards regulations under the microscope this year, which might put the contentious hog barn exemption back in the spotlight.
Labor department spokesperson Carol Todd said the labor standards regulations – which set the rules for conditions such as hours of work, days off and minimum wage – need to be updated.
“It’s been around for quite some time and it needs to be updated to modern legislative standards, and to be a more modern piece of legislation that can respond to the fact that workplaces are changing.”
Read Also
Canola council cuts field agronomy team
The Canola Council of Canada is cutting its agronomy team as part of a “refreshed strategic framework.”
One of the more contentious parts of the legislation is the blanket exemption from the minimum standards for people “employed primarily in farming, ranching or market gardening.”
The labor department decided in 1998 that workers in large-scale hog barns are involved in “farming,” and therefore the minimum labor standards would not apply.
Many hog barn owners were pleased with the ruling. They said imposing industrial workplace standards on a livestock operation was unrealistic and expensive.
But some workers and unions were upset by the decision.
“These aren’t farms, these are pig factories,” said barn worker Kirk Hough at a recent meeting held by the Grain Services Union to discuss their labor dispute with Bear Hills Pork Producers in the Biggar-Perdue area.
In 1998, the GSU called for hog barn workers to be covered by the legislation. Later the workers at Bear Hills joined the union and began negotiating with Heartland Livestock, a subsidiary of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the barns’ main investor.
Many workplace rules hammered out are ones set by the labor standards act in other industries.
GSU official Larry Hubich in November urged provincial labor minister Joanne Crofford to reconsider the exemption.
“While there may have been sound and valid reasons for exempting ‘farm workers’ for labor standards 25 or 50 years ago, it certainly is not the case any more,” he said in a letter to Crofford.
Todd said the labor department expects the hog barn issue to be raised during the review.
Some Western Producer employees, including the reporter, are members of the Grain Services Union.
