CCPA Says BC Government Decision To Continue Excluding Farm Workers From Minimum Wage Protection Very Disappointing

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VANCOUVER – Although there are positive elements Thursday’s BC government announcement in response to the second report of the Fair Wages Commission, the government’s rejection of the recommendation to include farm workers in the basic minimum wage is extremely frustrating, says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The government accepted the Commission’s (FWC) recommendation with respect to liquor servers, resident caretakers, live-in camp leaders and live-in home support workers who with piece-rate farm workers are euphemistically known as “alternate wage earners.”

The CCPA is particularly pleased that the lower minimum wage for liquor servers will be phased out although the timeline for this is unnecessarily slow. Alberta eliminated its lower liquor server wage in a year and a half.

However, the government chose to reject the FWC’s recommendations to bring farm workers under minimum wage protection. The FWC recommended a 15 per cent increase to all piece rates this year followed by full minimum wage coverage for all farm workers in 2019. Instead, the government is implementing a smaller increase in piece rates, delayed until June 2019, and is deferring a decision on ending the farm worker exclusion from minimum wage protection pending “further study to take place.”

“This is very disappointing,” says CCPA-BC Director Seth Klein.

“Many farm workers who are paid piece rates, especially those working in the Fraser Valley, are older immigrant women who often earn less than minimum wage doing very hard work. That these workers should be denied the basic entitlements of most workers cannot be justified. This decision seems to be acquiescing to the farm owners lobby and is not what one would expect from a government that purports to be concerned for the well-being of vulnerable workers, ” he added.

“This delay pending ‘further study’ feels like a real cop-out,” Klein said. “The industry was already given a chance to table evidence and arguments to the FWC, and the FWC commissioned a report on the farm worker exclusion from noted employment standards expert Mark Thompson.

“Why should we continue to make exceptions to this basic floor? Even if a particular subset of the agriculture industry claimed this exception was necessary, what does it mean to accept a business model that relies upon paying mostly women workers poverty wages?” he asked.