Victims of a work accident at the age of 11

In Quebec, 149 minors under the age of 16 were victims of work accidents in 2020, according to the commission responsible for enforcing labor laws. The youngest were just 11 years old, learned The Press.

This is what emerges from a request for access to information from the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST), which specifies that the number of children of 11 years to have been injured is less than five. The commission, however, refuses to reveal the age of the youngest Quebecer to have lost his life in his workplace in 2020. Invoking the protection of personal information, it limits itself to saying that he was “less than 20 years old”.

“It’s worrying to know that 11-year-old children work and are injured at work,” said Suzanne Arpin, vice-president of the Commission for Human Rights and Youth Rights. It raises all sorts of questions: have they been victims of exploitation by their parents or their employer? Was their workplace safe? I find that shocking, even though it’s legal. »

Quebec is the only Canadian province that does not have a minimum age for child labor. Children under 14, however, must obtain permission from a parent.

The Labor Standards Act clarifies that an employer cannot ask children to do work likely to harm their health, but this does not prevent them from hurting themselves. The leading cause of injuries in children under 16? Falling equipment, tools or machinery.

Among adolescents, the real number of victims could be significantly higher than 149. A study has already shown that a third of all accidents at work serious enough to cause an absence were never declared to the CNESST, recalls Élise Ledoux, director from the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Well-Being, Health, Society and the Environment at UQAM, and specialist in the matter.

Many young people have never heard of the CNESST. This is the case of Gabriel*, 15, who started working at 13 in a supermarket in Mont-Laurier. As a bakery clerk, he has already burned himself taking baking sheets out of the oven. The first time he showed his injury to fellow workers. “They told me it was normal, that it had happened to them too,” he recalls.

It is difficult to know precisely how many children under 16 work during the school year. In 2016-2017, even before the labor shortage, a survey of the health of young people in high school already showed that more than half were employed. In 2014, a study found that this was the case for 48% of 12-14 year olds in three regions (Québec, Saguenay–Lac Saint-Jean, Laurentides). Among the latter, one in five even worked more than 20 hours a week.

Jobs with responsibilities

Teenagers aren’t content with playground jobs. Their responsibilities are sometimes important. At 15, Gabriel was responsible for all production in the bakery department of a supermarket. He had a 49-hour “week”: 25 hours in high school and 24 hours in the supermarket.

No wonder fast-food chains, hard hit by labor shortages, are snapping up their hands. In the McDonald’s in the Porte-du-Nord service area, on Highway 15 near Saint-Jérôme, a sign calls out to customers who have children: working in fast food “will help your child be hired in his future career, ”we can read. Some establishments in the chain recruit from the age of 13. “McDonald’s franchisees act in accordance with labor standards and minimum age worker requirements under laws established by provincial governments, including Quebec,” McDonald’s Canada explained in response to our questions.

When it comes to the health and safety of minors at work, sexual crimes are rarely mentioned, because police forces do not categorize complaints of harassment and sexual assault by place of offence. In Estrie, the Center for Aid and the Fight against Sexual Assault (CALACS) has accompanied, since 2020, three teenage girls, three waitresses, who had been attacked in their respective restaurants.

“Personally, I wouldn’t send my children to work before they were 16, the age of sexual consent,” says Kelly Laramée, a CALACS worker in Sherbrooke. From that age, at least, young people can quit their job more easily if they face an unacceptable situation. »

* The child’s first name has been changed to protect his identity.