NEWS RELEASERelease On Receipt
Labour College of Canada Labour Law Students draft New Legislation for Saskatchewan
Thursday, May 4, 2000 - Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask. --- Labour College of Canada students, with the unanimous support of participants attending the SFL/CLC Spring School in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., today presented the Deputy Minister of Labour with a Bill calling for the immediate repeal of Section 4, Subsection 3 of the Saskatchewan Labour Standards Act.
The intended purpose of the bill repealing this provision is to extend to all agricultural workers in Saskatchewan the rights and protections provided for by the Act.
Under current Legislation,
"4(3) This Act does not apply to employees employed primarily in farming, ranching or market gardening but, for the purposes of this subsection, the operation of egg hatcheries, greenhouses and nurseries, or bush clearing operations, shall be deemed not to be within the meaning of farming, ranching or market gardening."The existing exclusion, intended to provide relief for the traditional family farm, allows corporate entities to claim farmer status in order to avoid their responsibilities under the Labour Standards Act. Amending the Act to remove the exclusion will not change the application of Labour Standards on the family farm, as the Government's own publications testify. "Most farm employers use these standards to ensure good employer employee relations" states the Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture publication Saskatchewan Pork Profile.What the changes will do, however, is allow employees of commercial venture operations to be treated with the respect and dignity due under the Act.
Workers at Bear Hills Pork in Perdue and Biggar have been locked out since January 3, 2000, after demanding to be treated equal to persons with rights under the Labour Standards Act. The rights that most workers enjoy and take for granted in Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan Labour Standards Branch currently claims that these workers are classified as farmers, not employees. In reality, these workers perform duties more comparable to those of a factory assembly line worker than those of a farmer.
Deputy Minister of Labour, Sandra Morgan, who in 1999 addressed the United Nations on child labour, was presented with the proposed legislation and asked to recommend that the Bill be introduced and endorsed in the Legislature by the Minister of Labour. The Deputy Minister agreed to forward the Bill to the Honourable Joanne Crofford, but refused to advise the assembly of what her recommendation would be.
Some students of the SFL/CLC Spring School suggested that perhaps the Deputy Minister should stay at home and address what is going on in her own backyard. The workers involved in the bitter lock-out at Bear Hills Pork are receiving no better treatment than that of workers in the developing countries around the world, conditions which Ms. Morgan so recently condemned.
In presenting the Deputy Minister with the proposed Bill, School participants demanded that the Provincial Government cease its hypocrisy and rectify the unfair treatment of agricultural employees by passing and proclaiming the proposed amendment.
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For information and comments before 12:00 noon - Friday, May 5, 2000 contact any of the following individuals at the telephone number below:
Echo Valley Conference Centre
Fort San, Saskatchewan
Phone: 332-3284
Fax: 332-3286After Friday Noon, contact:
Pat Field - CEP Saskatoon 374-2812
Larry Buchinski - USWA Saskatoon 955-5725
Leon Crain - CEP Saskatoon 373-5015
Marjorie McCreight - GSU Regina 359-1565
Rosemary Oddie - CUPE Regina 585-0087
Debbie Mihial - CUPE Regina 761-2404
Mark Fabbro - CUPE & ASPA Saskatoon 343-9170
Greg Deroose - USWA Saskatoon 374-7961
Colleen Udey - SUN North Battleford 445-8803
Ruby Forshner - SUN Regina 525-5939
Sherry Bellamy - GSU Perdue 221-0614
Colin Byas - SGEU Regina 789-3849
Roland Hackl - UTU Saskatoon 668-4377
Sandra Morin - RWDSU Regina 525-1473
Richard Suppert - ATU Lethbridge, AB 403-381-0626
Larry Kowalchuk - Facilitator Regina 781-2944
Larry Hubich - Facilitator Regina 522-6686