On October 6, 2025, the coming into force of the latest provisions of the Act to Modernize the Occupational Health and Safety Regime (the “LMRSST”) highlighted a significant change: psychosocial risks are now an integral part of occupational health and safety prevention efforts.
Thus, like other categories of occupational health and safety risks, such as chemical, physical, or biological risks, psychosocial risks (PSRs) related to work must now be identified, assessed, and addressed by the employer.
In a context of significant transformation, however, discouragement is not an option! On the contrary, this is an opportunity for employers to review their practices, strengthen their prevention mechanisms, and develop a thorough understanding of these new challenges.
Psychosocial Risks Related to Work: What Are We Talking About?
Work-related psychosocial risks are defined as: “Factors related to work organization, management practices, working conditions, and social relationships that increase the likelihood of adverse effects on the physical and psychological health of exposed individuals” (INSPQ, 2016).
Psychosocial risks in the workplace include harassment, workplace violence, domestic and family violence, sexual violence in the workplace, and exposure to potentially traumatic events.
Beyond these risks, employers must also consider psychosocial risk factors, including decision-making autonomy, workload, organizational justice, recognition at work, and employee support. When inadequately managed, these factors, which are part of the organizational components of work, can contribute to the deterioration of individuals’ physical and psychological health and create risky situations. These factors must be understood holistically, considering their interactions rather than in isolation.
Why be concerned about psychosocial risks?
First, employers are required to comply with various legal obligations regarding psychosocial risks. The Act respecting occupational health and safety (the “AOHS”) imposes on employers the duty to protect the health, safety, and integrity of workers, both physically and psychologically.
It also provides for prevention and participation mechanisms, including the implementation of an occupational health and safety program and a health and safety committee, which must contribute to identifying risks and adopting preventive measures, including those related to psychosocial risks.
Furthermore, the Act respecting labour standards (the “ALS”) requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent psychological harassment and, when such behaviour is brought to their attention, to put an end to it. This obligation is part of a proactive management approach aimed at protecting the psychological health of workers and preventing workplace harassment.
Furthermore, numerous scientific studies demonstrate that exposure to psychosocial risks at work is associated with a significant increase in health and safety issues for workers, particularly with regard to workplace accidents, psychological distress, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and strokes. As with other risks, especially those of a physical or chemical nature, the health effects tend to worsen with the intensity and duration of exposure.
Finally, employers have a vested interest in addressing psychosocial risks in order to promote greater productivity and reduce organizational costs. The deterioration of employee health linked to these risks has significant repercussions on business performance, particularly due to absenteeism, presenteeism (being physically present at work but not fully functional and productive), premature retirements, and accidents, breakdowns, delays, and lost clients.
Conversely, implementing effective preventative measures can generate substantial savings. For example, preventing a single case of mental health problems can lead to significant cost reductions, both in absenteeism, estimated at approximately $18,000 (nearly 65 working days on average), and in presenteeism, the cost of which is estimated to be almost double that of absenteeism.
Concretely, what should you do as an employer?
The coming into force of these new provisions constitutes a privileged opportunity for employers to ensure that they adequately comply with their fundamental obligations in respect of occupational health and safety. In this regard, and depending on the number of employees in the establishment, the employer must ensure that the necessary preventive mechanisms are effectively in place, whether by having an action plan or participating in a program of appropriate prevention such as a liaison agent, a prevention representative and/or a health and safety committee.
In a second step, the employer should focus on integrating psychosocial risk factors into the fabric of its existing prevention mechanism, particularly within the framework of a prevention plan or prevention programme. This integration implies, on the one hand, the systematic identification of psychosocial risks and risk factors present in the work environment, taking into account the organization of work, management practices, working conditions and employment relationships.
On the other hand, the employer should proceed to a review of the measures already in place with a view to preventing or correcting such risks, such as the adoption and enforcement of a policy regarding psychological or sexual harassment, which must be mandatory. This stage allows the level of maturity of existing practices to be assessed and gaps or needed improvements to be identified.
The employer must then determine and plan the preventive and corrective measures to be implemented to reduce, control or eliminate the identified psychosocial risks.
Finally, monitoring and control mechanisms must be established to verify the effectiveness of deployed measures and ensure continuous improvement.
It is worth remembering that this psychosocial risk management framework is embedded in a dynamic and evolving process, which should be periodically reviewed to take into account organizational changes, events in the work environment and risks. In this regard, the supported commitment of the employer, as well as the active participation of workers and agents, representatives and health and safety committees, constitutes an essential condition for the effective and sustainable implementation of these obligations.
In conclusion
The modernization of the occupational health and safety regime confirms that psychological health is now an indispensable management challenge in the enterprise. Employers have every interest in integrating psychosocial risk factors into their prevention efforts, not only to comply with the law, but also to promote healthy, respectful and sustainable work environments. Our HR professionals are equipped to accompany organizations to ensure they comply with their new obligations and put in place effective prevention practices.
