Protect Alberta farm workers: fatality report

Paid farm workers should be covered by Alberta legislation that sets workplace safety standards, a fatality inquiry into the death of a man who was buried while shovelling grain in a silo concludes.

Kevan Chandler, 35,was cleaning out grain encrusted on the inside of a siloon a feedlot near High River in June 2006 when it collapsed, burying him and causing his death by smothering.

In a fatality report released on Tuesday, provincial court Judge Peter Barley recommended that Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act be amended to cover paid farm employees.

Because Alberta is only one of two provinces where workplace safety standards don't apply to farms, Chandler's family could not qualify for assistance such as Workers Compensation.

His wife and two young children,left struggling to make ends meet, began lobbying for changes to provincial legislation after his death.

Grey area

Farms are often family-run operations considered to be part home and part workplace so they fall into a grey area, according to the province. The Occupational Health and Safety Act does not cover non-farmers working at home, so farmers are not covered for the same reason.

Barley wrote he could find no logical explanation why paid employees on a farm shouldn't be covered by the act the same way employees in any other business are.

After reviewing Chandler's case in a two-day fatality inquiry in October, the judge cited many useful suggestions made by Eric Jones, a retired farm safety specialist who testified at the inquiry.

Barley recommended that hazard assessment forms be completed before farm workers take on a dangerous activity, including cleaning silos, and that the paperwork be kept on file to pass on knowledge to new employees.

Other recommendations included:

• No entry be made into a silo beneath the top level of the grain contained inside, unless the grain is resting at an angle of less than 45 degrees.
• At least one person be present outside a silo to watch for signs of trouble when another person is inside cleaning.
• A portable instrument suitable for calling for help be available during a hazardous operation.