The Quebec Employers Council and the Fédération des chambres de commerce du
Québec propose an in-depth reform of Quebec's occupational health and safety
system

MONTREAL, Nov. 24 /CNW Telbec/ - With 2010 marking the 30^th anniversary of Quebec's occupational health and safety system, the Quebec Employers Council and the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec are proposing a number of modifications to measures in the laws governing this area. The issues raised are substantial: the system directly affects 3.1 million Quebec workers as well as the 190,000 employers who cover the full $2.4-billion annual cost of the occupational health and safety system.

These proposals were presented on October 29 in a report submitted by the employers' consultative committee created by the two employers' associations in connection with proceedings of the Camiré working group on occupational health and safety. Established in 2008 at the request of the board of directors of the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST), this working group, chaired by Viateur Camiré, has a mandate to submit recommendations on the occupation health and safety system aimed at improving its efficiency.

"Remarkable progress has been achieved in the last few years," said Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of the Quebec Employers Council. "This includes a 29% reduction in the number of cases indemnified for occupation injuries in the period from 1999 to 2008 even as the payroll for workers covered by the system rose by 19%. But the current occupational health and safety system has existed for more than 30 years, and our society has changed significantly in that time. Over the years, many dysfunctions have appeared. In the 10 years from 1999 to 2008, despite a sharp reduction in the number of cases indemnified, income replacement payments rose by 69%."

Françoise Bertrand, president and CEO of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, stated: "The Quebec government, in partnership with employers and workers, must definitely revise the system to take account of the changes that have occurred at workplaces. With companies operating in a context of worldwide competition, they must maintain their productivity, and to achieve this they must benefit from an occupational health and safety system that is fair, efficient and competitive."

Employer recommendations for a more efficient and less expensive system

The recommendations suggested by the Quebec Employers Council and the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec aim to make the current occupational health and safety system less expensive and to improve its performance by correcting various problems observed over the years, especially in terms of prevention, overpayments, returning to work, medical assistance, preventive withdrawal and system management (see the detailed list of recommendations, appended below). According to the two employers' associations, the suggested modifications could save the CSST tens of millions of dollars per year.

In light of what is reported by employers, tightening is required in the measures contained in two laws covering Quebec's occupational health and safety system, namely the Act respecting occupational health and safety and the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases. The terms under which these laws are applied also need to be revised. The rationale for the system's existence is not being called into question. Quebec's occupational health and safety system is seen as one of the best administered in Canada, but the changes that have occurred since it was established in the early 1980s must nonetheless be taken into account.

The Quebec Employers Council and the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec plan to campaign for the government to act quickly in bringing in-depth reforms to the occupational health and safety system.

The brief from the employers' consultative committee is available on the website of the Quebec Employers Council (www.cpq.qc.ca).

The Quebec Employers Council brings together many of Quebec's largest companies and the vast majority of sector-based employers' groups, making it Quebec's sole employers' confederation.

With its extensive network of 154 chambers of commerce, the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ) represents more than 40,000 companies and 100,000 business people operating in every economic sector throughout Quebec. La FCCQ is a keen defender of its members' public policy interests, favouring an innovative and competitive business environment.

Appendix: Employers' recommendations

Prevention

• Requiring creations of an occupational health and safety committee for each public sector employer and for each private sector establishment (with more than 50 workers).
• Requiring adoption of an occupational health and safety action plan by each public sector employer and by each private sector establishment with more than 20 workers.
• Maintaining the status quo in the Act respecting occupational health and safety and its regulations for employers in priority groups I and II.
• Altering the Act respecting occupational health and safety to:
• exclude the safety representative in groups III to VI, including construction sites;
• exclude health program obligations for groups III to VI;
• make the adjustments needed to take account of the two previous proposals.
• Maintaining the current financial incentives.
• Maintaining prevention groups and mutual associations and relaxing certain aspects to promote a faster return on investment and to encourage employers with lower staff levels to join.

Salary base

• Altering the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases to have assessment of indemnity for a worker's replacement income occur in three steps:
• the current situation for the first 14 days of disability would be maintained;
• for disability lasting more than 14 days and up to 180 days, the income replacement indemnity would be based on an annual income loss history based on real or average annual gains (going back up to 12 months if required);
• for disability lasting more than 180 days, the annualized minimum wage would be considered as the amount of indemnity for minimum wage replacement.
• Relaxing the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases to enable the CSST to apply a more advantageous basis of calculation when justified by circumstances.

Combining retirement payments with CSST income replacement indemnity

• Like other systems, putting measures in the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases limiting the amount and length of the income replacement indemnity paid when the worker goes into retirement.
• Having the CSST continue to manage these files as if the worker were still serving the employer so as to determine a suitable job.
• Confirming an employer's management rights so that the employer can offer a temporary assignment or a suitable job.

Return to work

• Altering the forms to be filled out by the attending physician so that he or she may issue an opinion on temporary or permanent functional limitations at each visit so as to enable the employer to assign a job to the worker taking account of the functional limitations indicated on the form by the attending physician.
• Adding a temporary assignment to subjects on which the Bureau d'évaluation médicale may issue an opinion upon request from the employer or the CSST.
• Altering the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases to:
• have the production of data concerning permanent impairment of physical and mental integrity, and to have functional limitations abide by separate time periods, with the final report modified for the doctor filling it out to indicate permanent functional limitations;
• have the medical evaluation report cover only determination of permanent impairment of physical and mental integrity.

Designation of suitable employment

• Altering the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases to review the definition of "suitable employment" and to be able to determine more than one suitable job: job categories, benchmark jobs, etc.

Job search year

• Maintaining the principle of extension of income replacement indemnity in the situations set out in Sections 48 and 49 of the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases but specifying the scope and the limits, in particular:
• by limiting the length of the program to a maximum of 15 weeks;
• by harmonizing the program's conditions with those of the Employment Insurance Act or those of the programs in the other Canadian  provinces, and by specifying the control and follow-up rules and mechanisms;
• by enabling the CSST to end income replacement indemnity at any time if the worker does not meet the program's requirements;
• in addition, an employer charged for the costs of the measure must have the right to intervene in the file and to ensure that the worker meets the program's conditions. 

Waiting for surgery

• Having the CSST implement effective mechanisms for workers who have suffered accidents to benefit from surgery within periods comparable to those for the general public in Quebec.
• Having the CSST analyze the models used in the other Canadian provinces to reduce waiting times for surgery.

Physiotherapy

• Having the CSST cease reimbursing the costs related to physiotherapy (occupational therapy and other therapeutic measures authorized by the system) after 30 treatments.
• After these 30 treatments, having a multidisciplinary team be involved in the file and decide on further action.
• Having the CSST exert tight control and follow-up in this area.

Integrating the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec and the CSST

• Having the employer of a worker hurt in a road accident charged for 50% of the cost of payments, with the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec reimbursing the CSST for the other 50%, and establishing communication mechanisms for the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec to have all information needed for contributions assumed by the CSST to be set accurately, whether or not the vehicle owner is covered under the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases.

"Maternity without Danger" program

• Regardless of the system under which the program is administered:
• the list of dangers justifying application of the program should be reviewed and the acceptable risk level should be defined;
• application of the program should be uniform across Quebec;
• the program should be subject to periodic audits, both in its application and in its goals and results;
• the "Maternity without Danger" program should be removed from the Act respecting occupational health and safety and integrated with the Quebec parental insurance system with its terms andconditions
  
  
or:
• as in the other Canadian provinces, preventive withdrawals should be covered by employment insurance.

Administration of the system

Indicators of the system's state of health

• Altering the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases so that the annual presentation of the system's condition to its directors be supported by measurable indicators.

Coherency

• Altering the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases to provide for periodic audits of the policies and procedures of the CSST.

Transparency

• Altering the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases to give employers the right to obtain full access from the CSST to all tools it uses for managing the system: grids, tables, directives, guides, policies, etc.

For further information:

Patrick Lemieux    Advisor - Communications    Quebec Employers Council   Cell: 438 886 9804

Marc Poisson Communications advisor Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec Cell: 514 616 7691