The Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) is making an about-face and will continue to grant benefits to pregnant teachers who were deprived of them due to the public sector strike.
In the evening, Friday, the CNESST indicated that it would modify its procedures temporarily to allow teachers removed from their workplace preventively to receive their benefits.
“Faced with the exceptional situation and not wanting to interfere directly or indirectly in the negotiations, the CNESST will apply administrative relief,” indicated its spokesperson, Antoine Leclerc-Loiselle.
Teachers who were asked to reimburse the benefits they had received for certain periods “will be contacted quickly in order to cancel the decision in these cases,” he adds.
The Press reported on Friday the case of a teacher, Jenyfer Hervieux, who is preparing to give birth to her first child. As she works with students suffering from autism spectrum disorder with intellectual disabilities, she was unable to start the 2023-2024 school year.
However, at the beginning of the month she received a letter from the CNESST ordering her to reimburse the payments that were made in the week of November 23 to 30, i.e. $921.36.
This is the first week of strike for the Autonomous Education Federation, whose 66,500 members have been on an indefinite general strike since November 23 and without income.
Being exposed to danger
This is because to benefit from the “For safe maternity” program, teachers must “meet certain eligibility conditions, including being in the presence of dangers certified in the Medical Certificate for the assignment or preventive withdrawal of the pregnant worker or who is breastfeeding,” explained the CNESST.
Therefore, the payment of these compensations “may be temporarily suspended if for a period of more than 7 consecutive days, the worker is no longer exposed to the danger identified in the Medical Certificate,” it was specified.
A strike or lockout are part of the reasons why compensation may stop being paid, just like the summer period, when schools are closed.
Friday evening, the CNESST indicated that it was “sensitive to the questions” surrounding the application of this program in the current context of strikes in the public sector. Changes will be made to its website.
Several dozen pregnant teachers should benefit from this change in CNESST’s position, although it is difficult to estimate the exact number of them who receive these benefits or who have been asked to reimburse them.
With Marie-Eve Morasse, The Press