Camille Legault Thuot
Montreal, February 29, 2024 – A survey conducted by IRIS and published today shows that the Quebec occupational health and safety regime is perpetuates the vulnerability of non-unionized workers, who represent nearly 60% of workers in Quebec.
According to Mathieu Charbonneau, associate researcher at IRIS and author of the study, “the Act to modernize the occupational health and safety system adopted in 2021 will not provide satisfactory answers to the problems encountered by non-unionized workers in terms of occupational health and safety prevention.”
Increased risks for non-unionized workers
Inspection reports from the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) and employee testimonials reveal that non-unionized workers are less well protected against occupational injuries in Quebec.
“When we look at the testimonies of non-unionized warehouse and private daycare workers, we see that they don’t always have the information they need to know their rights, or to exercise them,” notes Mathieu Charbonneau.
Gap between law and reality
Studies show that involving workers in SST risk prevention helps protect them from occupational injuries. In fact, employee involvement in occupational health and safety prevention has been a right since 1979.
“Non-unionized employees are still struggling to make their concerns heard about the effects of their work on their health. This discrepancy between the law and reality is hard to justify, since workers are in the best position to identify hazards in their workplace,” notes the researcher.
Quebec lags behind in prevention
Precarious employees are six to seven times more likely to fear that reporting workplace hazards will have negative consequences for their jobs. In this context, the right to participate in prevention, guaranteed by the Act, only becomes effective if the employee can rely on an external resource and thus avoid any form of reprisal.
“Mathieu Charbonneau concludes: “The current reform will only be a flash in the pan if it is not accompanied by the creation of an employer-independent structure to support non-unionized employees, as is the case in all other Canadian provinces.
To read the note: bit.ly/travail-non-syndique
Camille Legault Thuot holds a master’s degree in political science from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). From 2019 to 2022, she was in charge of research and communications for an organization defending the rights of the unemployed. She is particularly interested in the new forms of precarious work and the various labor regulation programs.
Comments are closed.