Quebec Bill 59, An Act to Modernize the Occupational Health and Safety Regime
Defend Workers' Right to Healthy and Safe Working Conditions! Hands Off Workers' Compensation!
  
The Committee on Labour and the Economy of the Quebec National
Assembly is now carrying out a clause-by-clause review of Bill 59, An Act to modernize the occupational health and safety regime. The Bill, which is comprised of over 300 articles, modifies the 1985 Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases
and the 1979 Act respecting occupational health and safety.
The government's claim that the bill modernizes the health and
safety regime is not true. The bill follows the path of the neo-liberal
anti-social offensive, imposing a complete overhaul of the health and
safety regime without any say or control by the workers, unions and
the defence organizations of injured workers, all of which have
thoroughly denounced it. It is estimated that hundreds of millions of
dollars are going to be "saved" by employers every year through the
denial of compensation for workers injured or made ill on the job and
from the reduction of programs dedicated to the care of injured workers
so that they can live a life in dignity with their rights recognized.
It
is a massive restructuring of the state to eliminate any previous space
that was available to workers and their organizations to give them a
modicum of say in the determination of the occupational health and
safety regime.
Workers' Forum joins with Quebec workers and their
organizations who are saying No! to the legislation, that it must not
pass, mobilizing to demand resolution to these critical problems in a
way that benefits workers and the society, based on workers' demands.
The fact that this attack is perpetrated in the midst of the COVID-19
pandemic which increases all problems related to the health and safety
of workers shows the criminality of the Legault government.
In this issue we are providing information on the legislation,
opposition and proposals for empowering the workers, and will provide
more information in the coming days and weeks, to contribute to making
the voice of workers effective in defeating this dictate and upholding
the right of workers to determine what are healthy and safe working
conditions, and for full compensation for injuries and illness.
This article was published in
Number 18 - March 17, 2021
Article Link:
Quebec Bill 59, : Defend Workers' Right to Healthy and Safe Working Conditions! Hands Off Workers' Compensation!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
