Court challenge targets limits on OHS coverage
Six major Quebec union organisations have gone to court to contest the provincial government’s decision to exclude health, education and social services workers from a new, general workplace accident prevention program, according to a report.
The Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS), Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) and Fédération Autonome de l’Enseignement (FAE) have each filed separate motions in Quebec Superior Court, according to a report by The Canadian Press (CP).
In addition to their individual motions, the APTS and FTQ have filed a joint petition, according to the report.
Reform left out health, education and social services
The legal moves flow from a broad reform of Quebec’s occupational health and safety system introduced in 2021 by Labour Minister Jean Boulet.
CP noted that Boulet’s legislative overhaul was billed as a sweeping modernisation of the province’s prevention and compensation regime.
However, in a separate bill linked to that reform, the government opted to exclude workers in health care, social services and education from the new general accident prevention program. Staff in those sectors continue to be covered by distinct protection mechanisms instead of being integrated into the wider framework, according to the report.
Unions allege discriminatory impact on women workers
Since the bill was tabled, unions and groups representing workers injured on the job have criticised the protocols that apply to the excluded sectors. They argue these rules are discriminatory because women make up the majority of employees in health, education and social services, according to the CP report.
Unions and advocacy groups say the separate system “discriminate[s] against women, the primary workers in these sectors.”
Meanwhile, Boulet has defended the government’s approach by pointing to the complexity of changing prevention structures in large public systems.
Last October, he said there were differences between existing protection mechanisms and that new measures had to be rolled out “intelligently.” He added that, “Deploying new mechanisms takes time, support and a lot of education,” according to CP.
The motions before Quebec Superior Court ask judges to review the legal basis for maintaining separate systems for public‑sector care and education workers and seek to have members of the affected unions brought under the province’s revamped general prevention program, according to the report.
