Preventive withdrawal : reassignment is up to the employer's discretion

A police patrol sergeant challenges the CNESST’s decision declaring her complaint (227 AOHS) inadmissible. While pregnant, she provided her employer with a medical certificate stating that her working conditions involved a danger. She believes that the refusal to reassign her to administrative duties constitutes a discriminatory or reprisal measure. In this case, the worker could not require to be reassigned. The employer is free to follow up the worker’s request for reassignment or to reassign her or not, and this choice falls within the scope of its management rights. While there is a significant difference between the income replacement indemnity that the worker receives and her salary, the Court reminded that the indemnification plan is not perfect and that it is a social compromise measure. In the absence of a discriminatory or reprisal measure, the complaint is inadmissible.

Ouellet  et Ville de Québec (Service de police)
2023EXPT-210, 2022 QCTAT 5678 (SST), j.a. Jean-François Dufour