OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Access to prevention and safety measures for all workers
Just as the labour minister was announcing plans to modernize Québec’s system of occupational health and safety, a study by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) highlighted the need for all workers to be covered by certain prevention and safety provisions in the Act respecting occupational health and safety (e.g., provisions involving the creation of health and safety committees, the appointment of safety representatives and the implementation of prevention programs and health programs in the workplace), as only those in so-called “priority groups” have been covered until now. Three out of four workers in Québec don’t have access. And given the composition of the non-priority groups (Groups IV, V and VI in the Act), women make up 85% of the excluded workforce.
The study also shows that Groups IV, V, and VI are proportionally just as affected as Groups I, II and III by work-related musculoskeletal disorders due to non-traumatic factors – if not more.