Description: The Province of Quebec is reexamining its legislation for workplace injuries. The current act dates back as far as 1979, when Quebec had a much larger percentage of workers in manufacturing and industry. Some are urging the government to do better by expanding the proposed legislation to include twenty-first century issues like burnout of service workers and repetitive strain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Date:  February 5, 2021

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-burnout-workplace-safety-1.5899738

Discussion points:

1) What do you think of the proposal to include burnout in the new rules?

2) The article says business groups say the move to include burnout would raise employers’ already high premiums for health and safety, and, that “burnout” is not even a term included by the American Psychiatric Association in its descriptions of mental illness. How would you respond to this as a representative of a union organization?

3) In Wiley’s Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making, we find a section on cost behaviour analysis in Chapter 2, along with several important cost definitions. How would you classify the costs of these increased premiums to Quebec companies?