The CNESST issued no less than 25 statements of offense to Village Vacances Valcartier, after noting that more than a hundred young people under the age of 14 were working there without signed parental authorization and after a young worker had been seriously injured last June.
The Standards, Equity, Health and Safety Commission issued 23 statements of offense in connection with the Act respecting labor standards and two in connection with occupational health and safety.
As for violations of the Act respecting labor standards, the amount of fines related to statements of offense varies from $600 to $1,200 for a first offense and from $1,200 to $6,000 for a repeat offense.
As for violations of the Act respecting occupational health and safety, the amount of the fine varies from $18,157 to $72,637 for a legal person in the case of a first offense, and from $36,319 $ to $181,593 in the event of a repeat offence.
For an offense under another section of the same Act respecting occupational health and safety, the amount of the fine varies from $1,818 to $3,632 for a legal person in the case of a first offence, and $3,632 to $7,263 in the event of a repeat offence.
The Commission had carried out these checks on the work of young people after it had investigated a work accident, in June 2022, during which a young person under the age of 14 had suffered serious injuries to the head and upper body.
In this context, it had noted that the staff there included more than 175 workers under the age of 14 and that for a hundred of them, the employer did not have any signed parental authorization – which the law requires, d a parent or guardian.
The accident
The injured young worker was part of a team that had to clean the grounds, remove dead leaves from the camping spaces, then go to empty the trailer in a laydown area. The trailer was towed by a quad bike. Two young people were in the seats of the UTV and two in its cargo box.
It was during a turn that the youngster was ejected from the cargo box of the UTV, then was hit and crushed by the trailer he was towing.
The CNESST report highlights several facts: first, “workers do not wear seat belts when traveling in quads”. There were indeed some in this vehicle, but they were folded under the driver’s seat.
Then, “workers don’t wear hard hats. The employer did not make any available to the workers”.
Also, the driver “did not receive any specific training on the safe driving of a quad bike”.
Similarly, the Act respecting off-road vehicles stipulates that passengers must sit in the seats provided and that no one may, while a vehicle is in motion, grab hold of, hold onto or sit on any part of the vehicle. which is not a seat for a passenger.
As for the young injured worker, “his training is essentially carried out by companionship and during the welcome day”.
As for the employer, he “has not documented in writing the identification and analysis of risks for his establishment, nor set up a health and safety committee, nor appointed at least one representative in health and safety”.
At the end of its investigation, the CNESST retains two causes for this accident: the fact that the young person stood up in the loading box of the UTV and the lack of training and supervision of young people and new workers, which cause them to ignore several safety measures relating to the operation of a quad bike.