Minister Jean Boulet is not closing the door to including quotas for female workers in public contracts to force entrepreneurs to hire more women.
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Québec solidaire is asking the government to take advantage of its vast reform of the construction industry to “take a step forward” so that women are better represented in this sensitive sector. Currently, female workers represent only 3.65% of workers on construction sites. Solidarity MP Alexandre Leduc believes that constraints must be imposed on employers in order to reverse the trend.
“We analyze all situations,” the Minister of Labor said on Thursday. We are starting the detailed study, we have measures in the bill (modernizing the construction industry) and increasing the representation of women is one of our priorities. As for the means, we will study them in a parliamentary committee.”
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Jean Boulet wanted to emphasize that his government has “done a lot” for the integration of women in the construction industry. “The number of women in the construction industry has tripled in recent years,” insisted the minister, who fully intends to continue in this direction.
He not only wants to attract more women to this sector, but also ensure that they don’t leave after a few years. Minister Boulet is convinced that the legislation he has just adopted to combat harassment in the workplace will help improve the representativeness and retention of female workers.
The Intervention Council for Women’s Access to Work also recommends that the government, the largest client, impose targets for female workers on public construction sites.
These quotas for women should apply to general contractors and subcontractors, as well as to all construction trades. The organization even suggests the imposition of sanctions if employers do not respect the targets throughout the duration of the contracts.
The PLQ in disagreement
However, this proposal is not supported by the Quebec Liberal Party. Liberal MP Virginie Dufour urged the minister to exercise “great caution” before imposing additional constraints on employers.
Coming from the municipal sector, the elected official argued that there are fewer and fewer bidders on public contracts. “If we put quotas (for women), we would simply no longer have any contractors,” she insisted.