The Quebec Employers Council (CPQ) believes that the new bill aimed at combating psychological harassment and sexual violence at work will have “untenable” consequences for Quebec employers.
The organization is one of around twenty people and organizations participating, from Tuesday to Thursday, in consultations on Bill 42 in the National Assembly. The CPQ is in agreement with the objective of the bill, which is to better protect workers, said Marie-Claude Perreault, its vice-president for labor, health and safety and legal affairs. However, she judges that certain provisions will be a burden for businesses, while others will prevent them from defending their rights.
Me Perreault is particularly concerned about the fact that a worker’s injury or illness is now automatically considered to result from his work as soon as he has suffered sexual violence “committed by his employer, one of the managers of the last […] or one of the workers whose services are used by this employer for the purposes of the same establishment, unless this violence occurs in a strictly private context,” indicates article 4 of the bill.
“Before, it was necessary to prove that a person had been the victim of an event that occurred in the workplace and which had led to the illness,” explains Me Perreault. If he were to stop working, the employee could then be entitled to work injury benefits, paid in part by the employer.
The CPQ representative believes that she would not be able to prove a strictly private context. “It often happens that a harassment situation arises from a relationship that began privately and then has repercussions in different ways,” says M.e Perreault.
Increased privacy
Another element that bothers the CPQ is the withdrawal of employer access to the medical records of workers who receive or must receive compensation due to an employment injury. Currently, the information that the employer can obtain allows it to challenge various elements, such as the cause of the illness or injury, the person’s inability to do their job and the duration of the injury.
In accordance with Bill 42, the employer must call on a health professional who can provide him with “the necessary information” to exercise his rights.
“This means that the designated doctor will have to analyze each line of the file to determine what information is necessary. And he is liable to a fine of $5,000 if he goes too far,” says Me Perreault, believing that it will be practically impossible to find doctors to do this task.
The latter says she understands the intention to grant increased confidentiality to the medical records of victims of sexual violence. However, she regrets that this new provision applies to all types of injuries and situations.
A model of prevention policy
The bill also details the broad outlines of the content of the policy that must be adopted by each workplace to prevent and deal with psychological harassment. This policy must, for example, provide for “information and training programs”, a “process for handling a harassment situation” and “measures aimed at ensuring the confidentiality of a complaint”. Marie-Claude Perreault believes that this model may not be suitable for all workplaces.
Furthermore, the new obligations could force employers, the majority of whom already have their own policy, to do additional work to revise it.
“This is in addition to several new obligations that employers have recently been imposed. We had the modification of the protection of personal information, the law on the Charter of the French language and the entire regime modernizing health and safety,” recalls Me Perreault.