The CNESST seems to be tightening the screws even more on companies that do not comply with the instructions related to COVID-19 when more than a quarter of all tickets written since the start of the pandemic have been written in the weeks following Christmas.
From the start of the pandemic until 1is February, the Committee on Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) issued 91 statements of offense in connection with public health directives related to the pandemic
Either the pace has accelerated, or companies have been more delinquent since Christmas, since 26 of the findings given by the CNESST were between December 26, 2020 and January 25, 2021.
This is 29% of all tickets donated by the organization.
If the number of observations may seem low compared to the tickets issued by the police to recalcitrant citizens, this is not, however, linked to a lack of will on the part of the inspectors, who have multiplied the interventions (see below).
Collaborative approach
It must be understood that the statement of offense is not the tool drawn first by the CNESST agents.
“If our inspectors notice a problem, they will first issue a correction notice. If ever the company does not comply, there will be a statement of offense issued, ”nuance Nicolas Bégin, spokesperson for the CNESST.
He also specifies that not all interventions result in correction notices.
The director of government relations in Quebec for the Retail Council of Canada, Jean-François Belleau, also speaks of a collaborative approach.
Targeted businesses?
Jean-Francois Belleau
Retail business
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By analyzing the 26 reports issued by the CNESST between December 26 and January 25, we see that the majority of them were given to businesses.
“It’s a bit normal, we were almost the only ones open,” comments Mr. Belleau.
He adds that the tickets are generally given to smaller traders who do not always have the means to make all the changes required by health standards.
Mr. Belleau also invites customers who witness breaches in a chain of stores to contact their head office. “It doesn’t take long and the situation is correcting itself,” he says.
