Changes to Employment Standards under Bill 17 are coming into effect January 1, 2018 for farms and ranches.

Farm operations with waged, non-family employees will have to follow a few more employment standards.

Jay Fisher Communications Advisor with Alberta Labour says, they have put together a series of free webinars to help farmers and ranchers with these new standards, with the first webinar happening Friday, December 1, at 12:00pm.

"We'd encourage people to come and listen, take part in these things, and find out if it applies to them, and if so, what they need to get ready for."

The webinars cover who is exempt from the legislation, and how the employment standards system works.

"There were a couple of small pieces of the Employment Standards Code that have applied in the past like maternity leave, termination notice, that sort of thing, but now it's a few more."

The following standards will apply to farms and ranches with waged, non-family employees: rest periods, general holidays and general holiday pay, vacations and vacation pay, minimum wage, termination, payment of earnings, records, deductions and rules for youth employment.

Other topics included are the definition of farms and ranches, and the definition of a family member.

The webinars to follow will be December 6, 3:00pm to 4:00pm, and December 14, 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

The Labour Ministry says, more dates will be added as necessary.

Each webinar has room for 95 participants, and people will have the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the speaker.

If you miss the webinars, they will be recorded and available for viewing on the Alberta Labour website.

To register for the webinars, or view recordings, you can visit their website.

Fisher encourage any farmers or ranchers wanting to know more about the application of Employment Standards to their operation, to call the Contact Centre at 1-877-427-3731.


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