A union of heavy equipment operators is opposing a bill from Labor Minister Jean Boulet that would allow other workers to find themselves in control of their equipment without adequate training or experience.
Marc Leclerc, the general director of the Union of Heavy Machinery Operators, local section 791, said Monday that Mr. Boulet would be making an irresponsible gesture by adopting his legislative text in its current form. According to him, this could increase accidents and risks for workers and the population.
“With heavy machinery, it’s very deadly,” he said at a news conference. Indeed, these are serious accidents. »
The union is demanding that heavy equipment operators be excluded from the list of trades that could be carried out by other workers for whom this is not their main task.
“Heavy machinery is unfortunately, year after year, the source of several serious accidents and deaths at work,” said Mr. Leclerc. We understand that with heavy machinery, the consequences are quickly catastrophic. »
In February, Mr. Boulet tabled Bill 51, which aims to accelerate the pace of construction sites and compensate for the lack of labor. In particular, he proposes increasing the versatility of construction workers.
“It is imperative to exclude the professions of heavy machinery operators from the concept of versatility for reasons of health, occupational safety, for workers and for the public,” said Mr. Leclerc.
Dangerous versatility
The objective of versatility is “dangerous” in the case of these operators, because it would allow an untrained carpenter to find himself in control of a mechanical excavator, believes local section 791, which is affiliated with the Fédération des workers of Quebec.
“What this amounts to is allowing people, workers who do not have the required training, to use heavy machinery. That in itself is nonsense,” said union lawyer Danny Nicholson.
According to the lawyer, local section 791 could go to court if Bill 51, under study this week in the National Assembly, is adopted without excluding operators of heavy machinery from the provisions on multi-skilling.
Mr. Leclerc showed himself ready to mobilize his members to demonstrate if the government does not accept his arguments.
“We are going to mobilize and we are going to demonstrate, but always, I want to emphasize this, so that there is no misconduct, it is always within the law, that is certain,” said -he clarified.
Inaccurate claims
Mr. Boulet’s office opposed the union’s hypothesis that untrained workers could find themselves operating heavy machinery.
“The statements made by the Union of Heavy Machinery Operators are inaccurate, because the concept of versatility only applies in the same work sequence,” responded the director of communications, Marie Barrette, in a written statement.
Multi-skilling is not an “open bar” and there was never any intention of putting the health and safety of construction workers at risk, the spokeswoman said.
“You can’t improvise as a heavy equipment operator,” she said.