Announced last spring, Bill 51, An Act to modernize the construction industry (PL 51), was finally tabled by Minister of Labor Jean Boulet on 1er FEBRUARY. Increasing the versatility and mobility of construction workers for the purposes of flexibility and productivity are the subjects that have fueled the debates so far.
Also raising important questions, PL 51 proposes to extend the measures that had been adopted to promote women’s access to the industry to “people representing the diversity of Quebec society” (indigenous people, people making part of a visible or ethnic minority, immigrants and people with disabilities). PL 51 thus sanctions a new term breaking with existing legislative frameworks in terms of access to equality and fundamental rights. It also extends “ one size fits all », and without prior diagnosis, a set of measures which have still not proven their effectiveness for female construction workers.
70% of women active on construction sites today have entered the industry over the last three years, driven by scarcity measures and the increase in job offers linked to the recovery plan. Currently, they represent only 3.6% of the industry’s workforce.
The under-representation of women in construction is directly linked to their staggering rate of departures, resulting in the discrimination and harassment they experience on construction sites. The absence of measures aimed at ensuring their maintenance ー when an action plan on retention had been ordered by the minister himself in 2021 ー testifies to the fixation of the government and the Commission de la construction du Québec ( CCQ) on the arrival of new workers. Since 2020, 84% of newly arrived women do not hold a professional studies diploma (DEP), even though the links between professional training and retention are widely documented.
There is no doubt that the construction industry is too homogeneous. The groups targeted by the government, however, deserve a rigorous analysis of the particular difficulties encountered by their “diversity representatives”, rather than a copy and paste of the façade measures put in place for women. The latter, for their part, deserve a concrete retention plan, designed in light of the challenges they experience on construction sites. The reform proposed by Minister of Labor Jean Boulet constitutes a missed opportunity to consolidate the fragile achievements of women and to make the Equal Access Program for Women in the Construction Industry (PAEF) compliant with the Charter and the Equal Access Act, with a view to its renewal in 2025.
We cannot ignore the context of “labor shortage” in which PL 51 intervenes: let us think of the massive entry of non-qualified workers, following the opening of pools, or the increasing arrival of temporary foreign workers, demanded by employers’ associations. And, after years of devaluation and dismantling of professional training, the urgent launch of short, paid programs to ensure that the proportion of minimally trained workers is increased. These measures, like PL 51, demonstrate the appetite of the government and the business sector for a disposable workforce.
If the government’s real ambitions are for the construction sites to reflect “the diversity of Quebec”, it must seize the opportunity to support the access and maintenance of groups historically excluded from the industry through a real approach to access to equality. It must not only strengthen job security (and not versatility and mobility), but also put in place the necessary means to promote professional training, maintain workers and their skills and expertise in the field. industry. It must also effectively combat discrimination in all its forms, including the risks of backlash.
To this end, the subjection of the construction industry to the Contractual Obligations Program (POC) remains one of the structuring avenues which would ensure true representativeness of Quebec society on major projects financed by the State, and therefore by all Quebecers.
*Co-signed this letter: FTQ-Construction; FTQ-Construction Workers Committee; Quebec Provincial Council for Construction Trades; Inter Tradeswomen Committee; Quebec Construction Union (SQC); CSN-Construction; CSD Construction; Quebec Federation of Workers (FTQ); Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN); Central of Democratic Unions (CSD); Feminist Action Committee of the FTQ; Council of Montrealers; Consultation table of organizations serving refugees and immigrants (TCRI); The Group of Thirteen (G13)
As well as the following people: Cheolki Yoon, assistant professor, School of Social Communication, St. Paul University and researcher with the Interuniversity and Interdisciplinary Research Group on Employment, Poverty and Social Protection (GIREPS); Claudette Carbonneau, president of the CSN (2002-2011); Christiane Plamondon, master’s student in people management in the workplace EDI track, University of Quebec at Rimouski, member of the interdisciplinary research team on work Health-Gender-Equality (SAGE); Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau, professor of labor law, Department of Legal Sciences at UQAM and researcher of the SAGE team; Diane Gagné, full professor in industrial relations, Department of Human Resources Management, UQTR, GIREPS researcher; Elsa Galerand, professor, Department of Sociology, UQAM, GIREPS researcher; Jessica Riel, full professor of occupational health, School of Management Sciences, UQAM, head of the SAGE team and member of CINBIOSE; Jill Hanley, professor, School of Social Work, McGill University; Karen Messing, officer, Order of Canada, professor emeritus of ergonomics, Department of Biological Sciences, UQAM, member of CINBIOSE; Lucio Castracani, project manager, SHERPA University Institute; Marie-Eve Major, full professor, Faculty of Physical Activity Sciences, Sherbrooke University and researcher of the SAGE team; Marie-Hélène Deshaies, assistant professor, School of Social Work and Criminology, Laval University, GIREPS researcher; Marie-Pierre Boucher, professor, Department of Industrial Relations, UQO, GIREPS researcher; Martin Gallié, professor of law, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM, GIREPS researcher; Martine D’Amours, associate professor (retired), Department of Industrial Relations, Laval University, GIREPS researcher; Mélanie Lefrançois, professor of occupational health and safety, School of Management Sciences, UQAM, researcher of the SAGE team; Me Rachel Cox, professor, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM, researcher of the SAGE team; Rabih Jamil, coordinator of the thematic group on im/migrant work, SHERPA University Institute; Sid Ahmed Soussi, professor, Department of Sociology, UQAM, GIREPS researcher; Valérie Lederer, associate professor in occupational health and safety and research methodology, Department of Industrial Relations, UQO, researcher on the SAGE team; Yanick Noiseux, associate professor, Department of Sociology, University of Montreal, GIREPS researcher.