Quebec launches consultation for changes in the workplace

Quebec is launching a consultation into the evolution of the workplace like teleworking, artificial intelligence, or the repercussions that the digital transformation may have in a work setting.

Labour Minister Jean Boulet has recently tackled the supervision of youth work and reforming the health and safety within the workplace.

“This consultation will allow me to reflect, with the players 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 Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Labour Standards Act and the Labour Code. I find that technological developments are accelerating the pace of change in the world of work,” said Boulet in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The consultation will address issues such as the right to disconnect, the use of pressure tactics in the case of teleworking and the surveillance of workers with technological possibilities.

This could all lead to a new law being drafted, after several months of consultation.

Currently, the application of the anti-scab provisions in the Labour Code to telework is being discussed in court and has generated a lot of interest.

In Quebec, the code prohibits the use of replacement workers “in the establishment” when there is a strike or lockout. But where does working begin and end when the employee is working from home?

“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 the context of remote work and telework? It gives rise to reflection. It will be part of the themes that we have think about and the pressures towards teleworking,” explained Minister Boulet.

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

The right to disconnect also provokes discussions, in a context where psychosocial risks could be linked to work like exhaustion, anxiety and others.

Boulet also emphasized that “artificial intelligence can pose ethical problems at work, both in collective and individual relationships. How are we going to adapt labor law and labor relations to this new dynamic?”

“There are already some thoughts. We have started to gather, in my department, a lot of information. We are on the lookout for 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 that we are making,” concluded Boulet.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews