Introducing The Québec Labour Standards Reform Bill

On March 20, 2018, the National Assembly introduced Bill 176 entitled An Act to amend the Act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions primarily mainly to facilitate family-work balance (the "Bill").

Highlights of the Bill

As its title indicates, the Bill amends namely the Act Respecting Labour Standards¹ (the "Act"), thus modernizing a structure that has remained mostly unchanged since the last reform in 2002. Every business with employees in Québec, whether unionized or non-unionized, is susceptible to be impacted by these changes to some extent.

More specifically, the Bill introduces or amends fundamental provisions such as those relating to wages, hours of work, statutory holidays, annual leave with pay, absences owing to sickness, family or parental leave and absences, psychological harassment, differences in treatment, personnel placement and temporary foreign workers and penal provisions.