The Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ) is pleased that the issue of child labor is in Minister Jean Boulet’s crosshairs and hopes that the bill limiting the presence of children in the labor market will not be influenced by “occult forces”.
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This was stated by CSQ President Éric Gingras during a press conference on Monday morning.
Mr Gingras recalled that in December the Consultative Committee on Work and Manpower (CCTM) presented a report which specifically recommended setting the minimum age for work at 14 and the number of working hours at 17:00 per week limit human can work.
Since this report is “global” and there is a consensus between employers’ organizations and workers’ organizations, the President of the CSQ considers that it must serve as a reference for the draft law presented by Labor Minister Jean Boulet, in February.
However, Mr Gingras fears that interest groups will come and throw a spanner in the works.
“We know it, we’ve seen it: there are forces that say, ‘No, no, no, we can’t control that’. We, we hope that this consensus (…) will be put forward by the minister and that there are no occult forces that make him have this “cheap work” of children, ”he started.
When asked to specify the occult powers he was referring to, Mr. Gingras underscored that “other business groups, particularly in the hospitality industry, have started to say, ‘No, no, it’s not, in the face of the CCTM recommendations ‘”.
“We just hope that by the time we get to the bill, there won’t be subparagraphs that reduce the impact a little bit because it’s a significant impact. There are employers who currently employ 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, in Tim Hortons, in restaurants, in grocery stores that can’t do this anymore. We just don’t want the Secretary of Labor to give in to that pressure,” he said.