Quebec Working Alone and Safety Course: Lessons 2026

Lesson 1: Quebec's health and safety system

Workplace health and safety in Quebec is governed by the Act respecting occupational health and safety (Loi sur la santé et la sécurité du travail, or LSST, chapter S-2.1) and its regulations, including the Regulation respecting occupational health and safety (RSST). The CNESST (Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail) applies these laws, inspects workplaces and handles claims for work injuries.

The employer's duties (section 51)

Every employer must take the necessary measures to protect the health and ensure the safety and physical and mental well-being of workers. Among other things, the employer must:

• Make sure the organization of the work and the work methods do not harm workers' health or safety
• Give workers adequate information about the risks of their work, with the training, help or supervision they need
• Provide protective equipment free of charge
• Protect a worker exposed to physical or psychological violence, including spousal, family or sexual violence, in the workplace

The worker's duties (section 49)

• Learn the prevention program or action plan that applies to you
• Take the necessary measures to protect your own health, safety and well-being
• Do not endanger other people at or near your workplace
• Help identify and eliminate risks, and cooperate with the health and safety committee

Harassment

Under Quebec's labour standards law, workers have a right to a workplace free from psychological or sexual harassment. Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent it and must adopt a policy to prevent and manage psychological harassment and make it available to staff. A worker may file a complaint with the CNESST within 2 years of the last incident.

Lesson 2: Working alone or in an isolated place

Some other provinces have a separate set of working alone rules in their OHS regulations. Quebec does not have a separate working alone regulation of that kind. The main rule is one short section of the RSST, backed by the employer's general duties in section 51 of the LSST.

Section 322 of the RSST says that when a worker does a task alone in an isolated place where it is impossible to ask for help, an effective means of surveillance, continuous or intermittent, must be put in place.

What the CNESST recommends

The CNESST calls an isolated place one where it is impossible or difficult for a worker to ask directly for help. Its guidance for lone and isolated work says:

• Avoid working alone where possible by planning shifts and tasks. This is the best prevention.
• When a worker must be alone, write a surveillance procedure, for example regular calls with the worker.
• Give the worker a two-way means of communication, such as a phone or radio, so they can call for help and others can check on them.
• Before travel to an isolated area, record the route plan (plan de route) and set the times for contact.
• Where two-way communication is not possible, use a location and status system.
• Avoid high-risk tasks while alone, including contact with people who may be aggressive.

Lesson 3: The right to refuse dangerous work

Under section 12 of the LSST, a worker may refuse to do a task if they have reasonable grounds to believe it would expose them, or another person, to danger.

When you cannot refuse

• If refusing would put another person's life, health or safety in immediate danger
• If the conditions are normal for that kind of work

The steps

1. Tell your supervisor or the employer's representative immediately and explain why you think the task is dangerous.
2. Stay at the work site and be available for other tasks.
3. The employer, you and the health and safety representative (or union representative, or a person you choose) look for a solution together.
4. If there is no solution, either side can ask a CNESST inspector to come. The inspector decides whether the refusal is justified. The decision takes effect immediately and must be followed. Either side can ask the CNESST to review it.

Under section 14, while you refuse you are deemed to be at work. The employer may give the task to someone else only in the cases the law allows, and that person must be told about the refusal. Section 30 says the employer cannot dismiss, suspend, transfer or punish a worker for using this right in good faith.

Lesson 4: After a work accident

If you are hurt

1. Tell your employer right away, even if you do not need medical care.
2. Make sure the event is written in the Register of Accidents, Incidents and First Aid. The first aider fills it in, and it is signed by the first aider and the injured worker.
3. See a health professional of your choice. They give you a medical certificate.
4. If you cannot work after the day of the accident, give the certificate to your employer.
5. File the Worker's Claim with the CNESST within 6 months of the accident (2 years for an injury caused by sexual violence).

If you cannot finish your shift, the employer pays your full wages for that day. For the first 14 days of absence, the employer pays 90% of your net wages for the days you would have worked, and then sends a reimbursement form to the CNESST.

Serious accidents (section 62)

The employer must inform the CNESST by the most rapid means of communication, and send a written report within 24 hours, when an incident causes:

• The death of a worker
• The loss of a limb or part of a limb, the loss of its use, or a significant physical trauma
• Serious injuries to two or more workers that will likely keep them off work for a working day
• Material damage of $150,000 or more

The scene must stay unchanged until a CNESST inspector has investigated, except to stop things getting worse or with the inspector's permission. As a guard, you may be asked to protect the scene.

Lesson 5: Prevention programs, committees and representatives

The LSST requires each establishment to have prevention and participation mechanisms. Which ones depend on the number of workers in the establishment during the year:

Full-time, part-time and occasional workers count, and so do workers supplied by an agency or whose services are leased or loaned. Supervisors and managers who represent the employer are not counted. Section 51.1 also says that a person who is not the employer but uses a worker's services for their establishment must meet the employer's obligations under the LSST. So a client site where you are posted has safety duties toward you too.

The health and safety committee and representative must also be told about serious accidents and receive a copy of the employer's report.