A Quebec law, unique in North America, that mandates a minimum corporate expenditure on workplace training now also become a vehicle to encourage the development of occupational standards. “There’s a kind of revolution happening,” says Jean Charest, Associate Professor at the School of Industrial Relations, University of Montreal, who sees the revamped legislation, and corporations’ apparent acceptance of it, as part of a growing trend to ensure employee skills are honed for a competitive environment

In 1996, the law to foster the development of manpower training and other legislative provisions came into effect, requiring Quebec companies to spend one per cent of employee wages on training to develop transferable skills. Those that did not spend one per cent would pay the equivalent to the provincial Ministry of Revenue’s National Fund, from which monies were drawn to subsidize and sustain other projects submitted by firms. Introduced over three years (1996 for corporations with payrolls of $1 million or more; 1997, $500,000 or more; and 1998, $250,000 or more), the law, commonly called “the one-per cent law,” saw 90 per cent of large firms and 70 per cent-plus of smaller firms paying in year after year. In 2004, the law was amended to apply only to firms with $1 million or more in wage costs.

Effective in 2007, the revision kept the one-per-cent rule for firms with payrolls of $1 million or more, but added a requirement that management and unions work together to define new occupational standards for specific jobs and develop a process of certification and recognition for those who meet the standards.

Charest says sector councils and companies have worked over the past year to establish the standards and means of recognizing required skills for jobs that have never had their core competencies defined. He calls the change “a step forward” since the new system addresses a long-standing need to boost the vocational skills required in many employees.