Minister Boulet launches consultation on changes in workplaces

Photo: Jacques Nadeau Archives Le Devoir Jean Boulet wants Quebec's “legal and regulatory framework” to respond to the “new realities” of the workplace.

Lia Lévesque – The Canadian Press

Posted at 7:48 a.m.

• Quebec

Quebec is launching a consultation on the evolution of our workplaces, whether it be telework, artificial intelligence or the repercussions of the digital transformation of work.

This is a vast project that the Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet, is opening, having already tackled the supervision of youth work and a reform of the occupational health and safety system.

“This consultation will allow me to reflect, with the stakeholders in the labour market, to ensure – because that is my ultimate objective – that our legal and regulatory framework responds to these new realities. I refer to the Act respecting occupational health and safety, the Act respecting labour standards and the Labour Code. I find that technological developments are accelerating the pace of change in the world of work,” he confided in an interview with The Canadian Press.

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The consultation will address themes such as the right to disconnect, the use of pressure tactics in the case of telework, the surveillance of workers with technological possibilities, for example. How far do the protections, rights and obligations of each party go? ?

All this could result in a draft law, after a consultation of a few months.

Topics of interest

The issue of applying the anti-scab provisions of the Labour Code to telework, for example, is already before the courts and has generated a lot of interest. In Quebec, the Code prohibits using replacement workers “in the establishment” where there is a strike or lockout. But where does the establishment begin and end when the employee is teleworking? ?

“There are concepts in our laws that are related to physical locations. Replacement workers, what are we going to do with the right to strike or lockout in a remote work and telework context? ? This gives rise to reflection. This will be one of the themes where we will have to think about pressure tactics in the context of telework,” explains Minister Boulet.

In terms of employee surveillance by new technologies and productivity monitoring, “what protections are guaranteed to employees in the face of these changes, particularly under the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms,” the Minister of Labour also raises.

The right to disconnect also provokes discussions, in a context where workplaces must increasingly be concerned about work-related psychosocial risks: exhaustion, anxiety and others.

Also, what about the protections and obligations of the parties in the case of workers on digital meal delivery or passenger transportation platforms??

And what about “artificial intelligence, which can pose ethical problems at work, both in collective and individual relationships,” emphasizes Minister Boulet. “How are we going to adapt labor law and labor relations to this new dynamic” he summarizes.

The subject is vast. “There are already some thoughts. We have started to gather a lot of information in my department. We are keeping an eye on what is happening internationally, in the rest of Canada, in the United States, in Europe. We really want our labour laws to be the best possible reflection of the benefits resulting from all the technological advances we are making,” concluded Minister Boulet.