The Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) is mobilizing against the reform of the Legault government’s occupational health and safety standards.
According to the CSN, Bill 59 includes significant setbacks and workers will lose “historic gains” compared to the current law, which dates back more than 40 years. The Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ) also deplored a setback for female workers Thursday morning.
Bill 59, led by Minister Jean Boulet, is currently being studied in the National Assembly and has been harshly criticized by all unions until now, whether it is the FTQ, the CSD or the FIQ. .
The CSN launched the site SSTvraiment.org to make the population aware of the challenges of the reform.
“The improvement of health and safety plans at work must not go through the reduction of the coverage of victims”, pleads the CSN in its brief, obtained by The Canadian Press.
Both the CSN and the CSQ are opposed to the proposed changes in prevention, which means that employers would be divided according to their size and between low, moderate and high risk levels.
According to the CSN, there would thus be a significant setback for groups of employees who are considered a priority and who are therefore currently entitled to the four major current prevention mechanisms: a health and safety committee, a health program specific to the establishment, a prevention program and a prevention representative.
Under the possible new classification, 60% of the sectors deemed to be priorities will henceforth be classified in the “low” or “moderate” risk categories. The CSN sees this as discrimination against women since predominantly female workplaces, including education, hospitals and municipal services, are generally classified as low risk.
“It disadvantages our sectors – education, health, higher education – because our groups, mostly women, would find themselves in risk levels classified as ‘low'”, also concluded the president of the CSQ, Sonia Éthier, Thursday morning in parliamentary committee.
This is how workers in hospitals will be judged to be at low risk of work-related accidents, even though there is a significant number of injuries in these places.
The CSN welcomes the addition of post-traumatic stress to the occupational diseases recognized for compensation, but regrets that burnout is still not one of them.
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