Commentary

An anticipated revision

For some time, we have noticed that the various political parties in Quebec are courting families with pre-election announcements and promises. The Liberal government is no exception. It has displayed its charm with the tabling of Bill 176, An Act to amend the Act respecting labor standards and other legislative provisions, mainly to facilitate family-work reconciliation, aimed at reviewing elements of the Act respecting Labour Standards.

At the press conference announcing this change, the government called itself a "family government" and made various announcements to that effect, namely that people will be able to have more time to take care of a child, parent, or loved one and have the guarantee of keeping their jobs. Unfortunately the "take care of" phrasing which is very present in this bill does not apply in all cases. For a person with an illness and / or treatment, the government has not planned to increase the number of weeks to focus on his recovery without fear of being dismissed, which is very disappointing.

The bill provides for two days of paid leave in the event of sickness or family obligations, which is a step forward, but far from the ten days we were asking for. Ten days is closer to the real needs of low-wage workers who cannot miss work without experiencing serious financial consequences. Finally, employees will be entitled to three weeks of annual vacation after three years, rather than after five years, which is a very slight improvement and sets a maximum limit of three weeks of annual vacation regardless of the number of years continuous service.

A person may refuse to work overtime if they have not received their schedule five days in advance, but this does not create the obligation to postpone the schedule five days in advance as requested.

As for harassment, we expected more. Although sexual harassment is now specifically mentioned in the law, there is nothing significant or compelling in this regard and we had requests to improve recourse, time, employer obligations, etc. As for employers, they will not be left out with the possibility of staggered working hours over four weeks. It will be possible to adjust the work week and overtime will be counted after 160 hours of work (four weeks of 40 hours) and not after 40 hours as is currently the case. For the government, this should meet the needs of businesses. The current law, which is outdated, has many shortcomings and is far from providing the 21st century workplace we had hoped for. The modernization of the Act respecting labor standards with Bill 176 is a great attempt at seduction that has made progress, but there is still a long way to go to ensure adequate social protection for our time.

MANON BRUNELLE, COORDINATOR ILLUSION-EMPLOI DE L'ESTRIE