Lia Lévesque, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL – The CNESST has notified 25 complaints to the Village Vacances Valcartier, after finding that more than a hundred young people under 14 worked there without signed parental authorization and after a young worker was seriously injured last June.
The Standards, Fairness, and Health and Safety Commission issued 23 felony pleas in relation to the Labor Compliance Act and two in relation to occupational health and safety.
For violations of the law versus labor standards, the amount of fines related to misdemeanor misdemeanors range from $600 to $1,200 for a first offense and $1,200 to $6,000 for a repeat offense.
As regards the violations of the art Occupational health and safety lawthe amount of the fine ranges from $18,157 to $72,637 for a legal entity for a first offense, and from $36,319 to $181,593 for a second offense.
For violation of another article of the same Occupational health and safety lawthe fine amount ranges from $1,818 to $3,632 for a legal entity for a first offense and from $3,632 to $7,263 for a second offense.
The Commission had carried out these checks on youth work after investigating a work accident in June 2022 in which a young person under the age of 14 sustained serious head and upper body injuries.
In this context, he had noted that the staff there included more than 175 workers under the age of 14 and that for a hundred of them the employer did not have any signed parental authorization – which the law requires, from a parent or guardian.
The accident
The injured young worker was part of a team that had to clear the ground, remove dead leaves from the pitches, then go to a rest area to empty the trailer. The trailer was towed by a quad. Two young men were in the seats of the UTV and two in the back.
It was during a banked turn that the young man was ejected from the UTV’s bed, then was hit and crushed by the trailer he was towing.
The CNESST report highlights several facts: first, “workers do not wear seat belts when riding quad bikes”. There were indeed some in this vehicle, but they were folded under the driver’s seat.
Then, “the workers don’t wear helmets. The employer has not made them available to the workers.
Furthermore, the driver “has not received any specific training on safe driving of a quad”.
Similarly, the All-Terrain Vehicle Act stipulates that passengers must sit in their designated seats and that no one may, while a vehicle is in motion, grab, hold or sit on any part of the vehicle. seat for one passenger.
As for the young injured worker, “his training essentially takes place in company and during the reception day”.
As for the employer, “has not documented in writing the identification and analysis of risks for its establishment, nor has it set up a health and safety committee, nor has it appointed at least one health and safety representative ”.
At the end of its investigation, the CNESST considers two causes for this accident: the fact that the young man stood up in the loading box of the UTV and the lack of training and supervision of young people and new workers, which lead them to ignore several safety measures related to the operation of a quad.
