Lia Levesque, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – Two years after the passage of occupational health and safety reform, representatives of workers and injured workers continue to voice their dissatisfaction.

They demonstrated again at midday on Friday in front of the Complexe Desjardins in Montreal, not far from the offices of the Commission on Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST).

Labor Minister Jean Boulet had this reform passed in September 2021, while the original laws dated back 40 years. His reform improved certain aspects, but it disappointed unions and organizations defending accident victims because, in their opinion, they did not place enough emphasis on prevention.

And that’s exactly what they criticized again on Friday, two years later.

The CNESST recorded 161,962 occupational accidents in 2022, i.e. 12,150 occupational diseases and 149,812 work-related accidents.

“That has to stop. “We demand prevention mechanisms in all workplaces,” said David Bergeron-Cyr, one of the vice presidents of the CSN, into the microphone.

FTQ general secretary Denis Bolduc added on the microphone: “Even in unionized places we have difficulty doing prevention.” Imagine a workplace where there is no union. Imagine a workplace where there are foreign workers and also temporary foreign workers.”

The president of the CSD, Luc Vachon, recalled that the construction sector is “the deadliest in Quebec year after year”. “Can we give this sector the opportunity to no longer be part of the statistics?” he said to the hundred or so protesters gathered.

“All we are given is the appearance of means of protection,” complained the president of the Central Democratic Trade Unions.