The study shows a high rate of workplace injuries among immigrants in Montreal

Marisela Amador, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – According to a new study by the Robert-Sauvé Research Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (IRSST), up to 80 percent of people injured on the job in Montreal and in need of rehabilitation are immigrants.

IRSST researcher Jessica Dubé said the provincial Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety (CNESST) reports that the majority of its cases involve immigrants, compared to a decade ago when the majority involved Quebec workers.

“We spoke to occupational health and safety board employees, injured migrant workers, rehabilitation counselors, employers and doctors,” Ms. Dubé said in an interview on Tuesday.

“We wanted to understand the different challenges of the vocational rehabilitation process for migrant workers.”

He said the increase in injuries involving immigrants can be explained in part by the increase in the immigrant population in Montreal and the industries in which they choose to work – or are driven to work.

Ms. Dubé explains that many immigrants face barriers in the labor market, such as the lack of recognition of their diplomas and accreditations by Quebec’s professional bodies. These hardships sometimes lead immigrants to take jobs for which they do not have the right skills or training, which she says increases the risk of injury.

The study shows that some industries that lead to many injuries – and which include a high proportion of immigrants – include agriculture, manufacturing as well as social and health services, which tend to involve long hours, grueling work and manual labour.

“These jobs carry a higher risk of injury because they are very manual and repetitive,” said the researcher.

Additionally, immigrants may not be aware that they can report injuries and potentially be compensated, Dubé said.

“In some cases they will wait to report the injury, or not at all, and in other cases they will wait for the injury to get worse or become chronic before reporting the injury, which may explain to some extent why we find so many workers immigrants in rehabilitation,” he explained.

The researcher adds that some workers will not report their injuries for fear of reprisal and dismissal.

Ms Dubé called the study’s findings “worrying” and said one of the goals is to raise awareness of the situation.

“We also hope that you will make changes to your occupational health and safety policies. And possibly new intervention strategies that will help physicians and employers ease the return-to-work process for workers.”

The study is ongoing and the full results won’t be presented until June.

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