--- title: "Law 27 and psychosocial risks: listen to your employees with a survey | Sparkbay" description: "What Quebec's Law 27 requires about psychosocial risks at work, what the CNESST asks employers to look at, and how a confidential employee survey gathers what your teams say." url: "https://sparkbay.com/en/law-27-compliance" language: "en" --- Health and safety in Quebec # Law 27: hear your teams on workload, autonomy and recognition ## Under Law 27, a Quebec employer's prevention program or action plan must identify the psychosocial risks related to the work. A confidential survey gathers what employees say, group by group, for your analysis and your follow-up. - Results by group, never by person - ISO/IEC 27001 certified - Hosted in Quebec - Hosted in Canada - Hosted in Europe - Hosted in Canada or Europe [Schedule a demo](https://sparkbay.com/en/request-demo) [Talk to our team](https://sparkbay.com/en/contact-form) ![Sparkbay heatmap with participation, attrition risk and driver scores for each group](https://sparkbay.com/content/images/feature-heatmap-bg.png) [Obligations](https://sparkbay.com/en/law-27-compliance#obligations) · [Psychosocial risks](https://sparkbay.com/en/law-27-compliance#risks) · [How Sparkbay helps](https://sparkbay.com/en/law-27-compliance#sparkbay) · [CNESST follow-up](https://sparkbay.com/en/law-27-compliance#cnesst) · [FAQ](https://sparkbay.com/en/law-27-compliance#faq) Obligations ## What Law 27 asks of employers ### Bill 59, the Act to modernize the occupational health and safety regime, was assented to on October 6, 2021 (S.Q. 2021, c. 27). Among other changes, it amended the Act respecting occupational health and safety. ### Protect mental well-being too Every employer must take the necessary measures to protect the health and ensure the safety and the physical and mental well-being of workers (section 51). ### A prevention program from 20 workers An establishment with at least 20 workers during the year needs a prevention program. It must identify and analyze the risks to workers' health, psychosocial risks related to the work included (sections 58 and 59). ### An action plan below 20 Where no prevention program is required, the employer prepares an action plan for the establishment. It must identify the same risks, psychosocial risks included (sections 61.1 and 61.2). ### Measures, priorities and timelines The program or plan sets out the measures and priorities to eliminate the risks identified, or failing that to control them, with timelines, and the measures that check they stay eliminated or controlled. ### Sexual violence and harassment Psychosocial risks include risks related to sexual violence, and the program or plan includes your policy to prevent and manage psychological harassment. ### Updated every year Since October 1, 2025, the new rules on prevention mechanisms apply to every workplace in Quebec, and the program or plan must be updated every year. The official texts: [Act respecting occupational health and safety →](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/S-2.1) · [CNESST occupational health program on psychosocial risks, in French →](https://www.centredoc.cnesst.gouv.qc.ca/pdf/Publication/PS_risques_psychosociaux.pdf) Psychosocial risks ## What the CNESST asks you to look at ### Its occupational health program on psychosocial risks must be taken into account in your prevention program or action plan. ### The risks and their factors - Three risks the CNESST has prioritized: violence, harassment and exposure to a potentially traumatic event - Five main factors: workload, decision-making autonomy, social support, recognition and organizational justice - They concern work situations, not people's personal characteristics ### Ways to identify them - Administrative data, such as absenteeism, turnover, accident and incident registers and complaints - Signs of conflict and incivility, by asking the health and safety committee, HR and worker representatives - Interviews or questionnaires, with a valid and reliable tool that respects confidentiality - Workers taking part in identifying and analyzing the risks, and in suggesting prevention measures How Sparkbay helps ## What a confidential survey adds ### A survey does not replace your analysis or your harassment policy. It gives them what employees say, group by group, and shows whether your measures work. ### Hear your teams - **Questions on the work itself.** Sparkbay's ten engagement drivers include workload, autonomy, recognition, relationship with manager, relationship with colleagues and personal wellbeing. You can add your own questions. - **Every employee can answer.** By email, by text message with a personal link, or on a shared tablet with their employee number. Reminders go only to people who have not answered. - **In their own language.** Employees answer the survey in their own language. - **A minimum for every score.** Scores appear only for groups that reach your anonymity minimum, 5 respondents by default and set per organization. - **Comments without names.** Comments appear without names, and only when enough different people have commented to reach your anonymity minimum. ### Follow up on your measures - **Compare teams.** On the heatmap, HR can compare drivers across teams. When a driver is low almost everywhere, one plan for everyone may work better than a plan per team. - **Where to start.** Each team's results rank up to three questions where it has the most room to grow, with their impact, score and benchmark. - **Action plans.** “Learn how to improve” suggests what to try for each question, and your administrators can rewrite that advice. The manager then writes the plan: a title, the driver it targets, and actions with due dates. - **Trends.** The engagement trend follows each team over time beside your whole organization, so a dip shows while you can still ask why. - **You choose the rhythm.** Every week, every two weeks, every month or every quarter, on the day and at the hour you pick, in your organization's time zone. What the survey measures, and how results become plans: [Employee engagement →](https://sparkbay.com/en/employee-engagement-software) · [Action plans →](https://sparkbay.com/en/employee-engagement-action-plan) [Schedule a demo](https://sparkbay.com/en/request-demo) CNESST follow-up ## What the CNESST can ask for ### The program or plan is yours to prepare and apply. The Act gives the CNESST ways to check it. ### Your prevention program The CNESST can order an employer to send it the prevention program, or to amend it, in particular to bring it in line with its occupational health programs (section 61). ### Progress every three years An employer with a prevention program sends the CNESST, every three years, its priorities for action, the progress of the planned measures and the follow-up of those in place (section 60). ### Remedial orders An inspector can issue a remedial order requiring a person to comply with the Act or the regulations, and set the time to do so (section 182). A survey also collects personal information, which Quebec's Law 25 protects: [Law 25 and employee surveys →](https://sparkbay.com/en/law-25-compliance) FAQ ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Law 27? Law 27 is the common name of the Act to modernize the occupational health and safety regime, Bill 59, assented to on October 6, 2021 (S.Q. 2021, c. 27). Among other changes, it amended the Act respecting occupational health and safety so that an employer's prevention program or action plan covers the psychosocial risks related to the work. ### Which employers must identify psychosocial risks? Every establishment has either a prevention program, from 20 workers during the year, or an action plan below that, and both must identify the psychosocial risks related to the work. A prevention program must also analyze them. According to the CNESST, these rules apply to every workplace in Quebec since October 1, 2025. ### What counts as a psychosocial risk? The CNESST has prioritized three: violence, harassment and exposure to a potentially traumatic event, and the Act specifies that psychosocial risks include risks related to sexual violence. The CNESST also names five main psychosocial factors: workload, decision-making autonomy, social support, recognition and organizational justice. ### Can an employee survey help identify psychosocial risks? Yes. Among the ways to identify them, the CNESST lists questionnaires, with a valid and reliable tool that respects confidentiality, alongside administrative data such as absenteeism and turnover. A survey gives your analysis what employees say, group by group; the analysis itself stays yours. ### Do answers stay confidential? Yes. Scores appear only for groups that reach your anonymity minimum, 5 respondents by default and set per organization. Comments appear without names, and only when enough different people have commented to reach your anonymity minimum. ### How does Sparkbay help follow up on prevention measures? Each team's results rank up to three questions where it has the most room to grow, and managers can turn the advice into an action plan with due dates. The engagement trend follows each team over time, so the next surveys show whether scores moved. ### Do construction sites have their own prevention program? Yes. When at least 10 construction workers are expected on a site at the same time at a stage of the work, the principal contractor must see that a prevention program is prepared for the site before work begins, with the employers. It contains the same identification and analysis of risks, psychosocial risks included (sections 198 and 199). #### What would your teams say about their workload? [Schedule a demo](https://sparkbay.com/en/request-demo)