The Canadian Football League’s Players’ Association (CFLPA) is calling for CFL players injured on the job in Alberta to be treated like other workers when they suffer a workplace injury.
In a statement posted to its website Tuesday, the CFLPA said it has submitted a brief to a government-established panel in Alberta tasked with reviewing the province’s workers’ compensation policies and regulations.
READ MORE: Alberta government launches review of Workers’ Compensation Board
“Professional football players are no different than every working Canadian,” Brian Ramsay, executive director of the CFLPA, said in the release. “They work hard for their employer and deserve to be included in the standards and protections that apply to anyone injured on the job.”
The CFLPA said its players have “very minimal coverage for accidents and injuries they sustain as part of their work” and that players are currently only covered for health costs associated with injuries for one year past the injury date.
“There is no insurance scheme to cover those injuries past that one-year window, nor is there salary protection for a following season,” the CFLPA said in its release. “This means that a player injured in the last regular season game can be without a paycheque indefinitely.”
According to Ramsay, when that coverage runs out, players rely on the public health care system which it says is not “fair to players or to taxpayers.”
Ramsay said he wanted the Alberta Review Panel to help bring politicians together to come up with “workable solutions that acknowledge the responsibility that our employers have to their employees – our members.”