It is difficult for companies to deal with positive cases

With new measures prioritizing healthcare workers and other specific PCR testing kits, employers in other industries are having a hard time dealing with positive cases among their employees.

• Read also: direct | Latest developments on COVID-19

• Read also: COVID-19: Hospitalizations continue to increase in Quebec

“It’s painfully complicated. Our employees are obligated to self-measure and self-diagnose: am I having enough symptoms or not enough symptoms? A headache Is it enough not to go back to work? And there, it requires us to recondition. We don’t have a lot of personnel reserves. We are too tight,” Amélie Cloutier Bastien, co-owner of Mère Hélène, regrets.

Additionally, many companies and their employees find it difficult to get their hands on rapid tests.

“It makes people self-isolate, but sometimes threes, four or five days for nothing. We haven’t been forced to shut down, but we hear about a lot of neighbors and work friends being forced to shut down or provide poor service to their customers.”

Some fear that this new issue management, which is left to the discretion of employers, will create additional pressure on employees due to a labor shortage.

“We have real concerns that some employers, I’m not saying all employers, but some employers are pushing to speed up returns, and thus workers to return in a hurry,” says Denis Bolduc, general secretary of the trade union. and Workers of Quebec (FTQ).

Attorney Marianne Plamondon says employers also have the right to require proof of a positive COVID-19 test.

“We have to trust the words of the employees. From the moment we encounter an employee with absenteeism or performance problems, the employer may ask for justification. She explained that the employer cannot ask for proof that we are in an epidemic,” stressing that in this case, it would be It is the employee who will bear the burden of proving the reason for his absence.