After waving the carrot, offering bonuses and benefits to encourage caregivers to work more, the CAQ government pulled out the stick at the start of the year, depriving many employees of the health network of their right to compensation for the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) if they contract COVID-19.
What’s more, the employer has resumed using Ministerial Order 2020-007, which suspends collective agreements in order to force full-time work and to cancel leaves and vacations.
As reported The duty Monday, employees of the health network often have to pay for their quarantine themselves, or use their bank of sick leave, rather than receiving benefits under the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases (LATMP ). This is a change from what was practiced by the CISSSs and CIUSSSs before the fifth wave.
Previously, the employer assumed that employees infected with the coronavirus had contracted the disease in the health establishment and therefore transferred their file to the CNESST without fuss, once they obtained a positive PCR test. The Commission applied the same presumption: according to a government source, 98% of the files submitted led to compensation for the employee forced to leave his job to isolate himself at home.
From now on, this presumption has disappeared, and the managers of the network analyze the source of the infection of the workers on a case-by-case basis. However, it is often impossible for the employee to prove that the infection came from the hospital.
Network managers also cannot prove that the infection did not come from the establishment, even in cold areas of a hospital. But now, they have opted for an arbitrary hardening of the interpretation they give to their obligations under the law.
The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity, Jean Boulet, to whom the CNESST reports, seemed surprised at the new restrictions imposed in the health network. He reacted on Twitter to the article of the Duty. “It is essential to support our health care workers. As they have particular risks of contracting COVID, they can be compensated in the event of isolation by filing a claim with the CNESST, ”he reminded.
Normally, under the AIAOD, the employer is required to pay 90% of the salary to an employee who is prevented from working by an employment injury, a benefit that the CNESST reimburses. If, in the end, the employee is not entitled to this indemnity, she claims reimbursement from him. As reported by journalist André Noël, the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) rendered a decision on January 3 recognizing the merits of a truck driver’s claim: the tribunal does not have to determine the time of the contagion, but rather whether the infection in question was contracted “more likely” in the workplace.
One can therefore wonder whether, by obstructing employees’ compensation claims, the managers of the health network are truly respecting the AIAOD.
This hardening occurs in a context where the managers of the network, faced with the lack of manpower and the overload caused by the cases of COVID-19, use the powers of the ministerial decree to deprive nurses of their vacation and force them to work full time. However, it is with incentive methods that the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, is trying to convince professionals to return to the network and encourage full-time work. Only about 2,000 nurses have joined the network, according to The Journal of Montrealwhile the objective of these measures was to recruit 4,500.
One can believe that the managers of the network judge that these measures of attraction are not sufficient and that coercion is essential now. But while Minister Dubé plans to “rebuild” the health system by prioritizing human resources and job satisfaction, the CEOs of CIUSSSs and CISSSs are increasing the hassle for employees. Their restrictive interpretation of the CNESST regime is another way they have found to sicken the world. It is certainly not with such petty methods that they will promote the retention of caregivers and the attraction of new recruits.