According to a new study by the Robert-Sauvé Research Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (IRSST), up to 80% of people injured at work in Montreal and requiring rehabilitation are immigrants.
IRSST researcher Jessica Dubé said the province’s Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety (CNESST) reports that the majority of its cases involve immigrants — compared to to ten years ago, when the majority concerned Quebec workers.
“We spoke with employees of the occupational health and safety board, injured immigrant workers, rehabilitation counsellors, employers and doctors,” Ms. Dubé said in an interview on Tuesday.
“We wanted to understand the different challenges of the vocational rehabilitation process for immigrant workers. »
She said the rise in injuries involving immigrants can be explained in part by the growing immigrant population in Montreal and the sectors in which they choose to work — or are pressured to work.
Ms. Dubé explains that many immigrants face obstacles in the labor market, such as the non-recognition of their diplomas and accreditations by Quebec professional orders. These difficulties sometimes cause immigrants to accept jobs for which they do not have the right skills or training, which she says increases the risk of injury.
The study shows that some high-injury industries — and which include a high percentage of immigrants — include agriculture, manufacturing, and health and social services, which tend to involve long hours, hard work exhausting and manual labor.
“These jobs carry a greater risk of injury because they are very manual and repetitive,” said the researcher.
Also, immigrants may not be aware that they can report injuries and potentially be compensated, Dubé said.
“In some cases they will wait to report the injury, or they won’t report it at all, and in other cases they will wait until the injury gets worse or becomes chronic before reporting the injury, which may explain to some extent why we find so many immigrant workers in rehabilitation,” she explained.
The researcher adds that some workers will not report their injuries for fear of reprisals and dismissal.
Ms. Dubé called the results of the study “worrying” and said one of the goals is to raise awareness of the situation.
“We also hope that it will bring changes to policies related to occupational health and safety. And possibly new intervention strategies that will help physicians and employers facilitate the return-to-work process for workers. »
The study is ongoing and full results will not be presented until June.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchanges and The Canadian Press for the news.