Evidence of meeting #91 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was complaint.
A recording is available from Parliament.
February 28th, 2018 / 5:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Confédération des syndicats nationaux
It is not a bad idea, but is it really necessary? We will have to wait and see.
Everything depends on what is in the act and the regulations. Regulations can be easily amended. For example, if the act contains a definition of roles and responsibilities, and if we decide to take a strong position on it, it would be a good idea to be able to review it five years later.
NDP
Karine Trudel NDP Jonquière, QC
I do not have much time, but could you go back to the notion of an occurrence and the importance of adding it to clause 1 of the bill.
Vice-President, Confédération des syndicats nationaux
The objective of the bill mentions only accidents, injuries or illnesses. But the legislation itself talks about occurrences. We have to make things consistent. We have a kind of separation between the purpose of the bill and its content. The word “occurrences” should be added to the purposes of the bill.
NDP
Karine Trudel NDP Jonquière, QC
There was also talk of the psychological aspects, which caught my attention.
One witness talked a lot about the effects of harassment on physical health. But often, for a victim of harassment or bullying, the psychological aspect is important and must be considered.
Vice-President, Confédération des syndicats nationaux
Yes, and more and more absences from work are attributable to psychological injuries, if I may call them that. They also take a lot of time to heal.
If someone falls down a broken flight of stairs, the stairs will be repaired before the person gets back to work. If someone takes sick leave because of psychological injuries and the work environment has not changed when they get back, those conditions will unfortunately mean more psychological injuries.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thanks to all of you for your contribution to the review of this piece of legislation. All of us around this table agree that this is incredibly important. I think somebody said that this is our shot to get this right. I would agree with that, and I thank you for helping us make sure we land where we need to on this bill.
Colleagues, we will be breaking for about an hour. The next session will begin at 6:30.
Thank you all very much.
The meeting is adjourned.