Alberta farm workers' WCB claims more than double since Bill 6 passed

Workers' Compensation Board claims for farm workers have more than doubled since the Alberta government passed the contentious farmworkers' safety bill, Bill 6 which at least one advocate hails as a sure sign of success.

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"I'm very comforted to know that more of these workers are being protected, and if they need physiotherapythey'll get that," said Darlene Dunlop with the Farmworkers Union of Alberta.

"I'm very happy the Alberta government moved forward on this as quickly as they did."

Under theNDP government's Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act,farmers and ranchers whohire outside help must provide WCB coverage.

In the first sixmonths of this year, theboard received 395 farmworker claims, up from158 in 2015.

'There's no more accidents being covered'

Humphrey Banack, the spokesperson with the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, saidhe's not reading too much into the increased number of claims.

He saidprior to Bill 6,many of those injured workers would have been covered by private insurance or the farmers themselves.

"There's no more accidents being covered, you know, and it's not like farmworkers before were being terribly abused," he said.

"We just covered them in different ways because we had opportunities to use different ways."

Alberta Labour Minister Christina Graysaid she's pleased to see that more workers are taking advantage of the protection the legislation provides.

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