An internal report by the previous Alberta government has revealed that the Progressive Conservatives were fully aware that the province’s agriculture sector desperately needed mandatory workers’ compensation coverage.
The Feb. 16, 2015 report stated that every year, between 18 and 20 Albertan farm workers were dying in occupational accidents, more than 4,000 were injured on the job and more than 400 of the injured were out of commission for at least two months, according to a Feb. 21 press release from the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which obtained the report though a freedom-of-information request.
“I’ve worked on a feed lot, and I’ve always known that agricultural work is dangerous work. But the magnitude of these numbers is eye-opening,” AFL president Gil McGowan said in a press statement about the report. “This utterly repudiates the arguments against basic workplace protections for agricultural employees.
“Anyone who reads this report and still says that Alberta doesn’t need common-sense agricultural workplace laws has no heart,” added McGowan.
After Rachel Notley’s NDP government came into power, Bill 6, or the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, went into effect in the province on Dec. 10, 2015. The new legislation made workers’ compensation coverage compulsory for injured agricultural workers, giving farm employees the same basic protections that other Alberta sectors already had.
Prior to Notley’s election, Alberta’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed that there had been 25 farming fatalities in the province in 2014. Twenty of the victims had been owners, operators, owners’ family members or employees of their respective farms (COHSN, April 21, 2015).
The government report also stated that agricultural workers in Alberta were losing more than $10 million in pay from lost-time injuries per year. In addition, it revealed that standard workers’ compensation coverage would cost less for farm employers than the private insurance that workers were relying on did.
“This document shows that the problem existed, that the research showed that reforms were necessary, and that this was ignored by successive Conservative governments who did nothing,” said McGowan. “This is almost criminal neglect that directly cost some Albertans their lives.”
The AFL release noted that since the passing of Bill 6, the province’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) has processed 763 injury claims from farm workers, 407 of which had involved disabling injuries.
“The need for further occupational health and safety and WCB protection for workers in this sector [was] long overdue and was clearly needed. The government could no longer leave worker-injury compensation up to individual farm operators,” an AFL backgrounder to the report read.
“WCB is the most cost-effective option for the vast majority of farms in Alberta, compared to private or commercial insurance plans.”