Citation

Lippel K, Vézina M, Cox R. Safety Sci. 2011; 49(4): 582-590.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2010.04.011

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Given that no specific provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act explicitly deal with psychosocial risk factors, in Québec, occupational health and safety inspectors employed by the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) address psychosocial hazards under the Act's general duty clause. This general duty clause and related provisions require that all employers eliminate hazards at source and protect the health of workers. More specifically, they are required to ensure that the organisation of work does not adversely affect the safety or health of the worker. Since 2004, Québec minimum standards legislation has also provided for the right of workers to an environment that is free from psychological harassment.

Written from both a legal and public health perspective, this paper has two primary objectives: first, to better understand the potential and limits of the current legislative framework for the protection of the mental health of workers and second, to describe how scientific knowledge related to high risk situations for the mental health of workers might inform interventions by inspectors for the protection of workers' mental health.