Quebec Workplace Inquiries: Reviewing Investigation and Disciplinary Practices Under Bill 42
Bill 42 alters internal investigation management, past disciplinary records considerations, confidentiality settlements, and dispute resolution rules.
Editorial hold — human review pending.
Country: Canada. Research snapshot: 2026-10-20. Source / development date: 2024-03-27.
Unresolved verification flags
Bill 42 has phased commencement provisions. Check the enacted text, relevant commencement dates, later amendments and Quebec-only scope before assigning a particular obligation or deadline.
Resolve these limitations and the article-specific legal checklist before approval. This draft is educational information, not legal advice.
Canada. Development date: 27 March 2024. Research snapshot: 20 October 2026.
Internal inquiries into allegations of harassment and workplace misconduct are subject to updated statutory boundaries in Quebec following the adoption of Bill 42 [source: launch-source-19]. The statute introduced specific structural requirements into the Act respecting labour standards and related laws, directly influencing how employers conduct internal investigations, preserve documentation, consider disciplinary history, and execute settlement agreements [source: launch-source-19].
Statutory Framework for Internal Inquiries
Under amended section 81.19 of the Act respecting labour standards, an employer’s mandatory harassment policy must explicitly define the process for managing harassment situations, including the exact procedures that govern an internal employer inquiry [source: launch-source-19]. Organizations are required to establish transparent intake and investigation workflows rather than relying on ad hoc administrative responses.
Crucially, the legislation mandates that the policy include measures to ensure the confidentiality of complaints, reports, and documentation, while imposing a minimum preservation period of at least two years for all documents made or obtained in the course of managing a situation [source: launch-source-19]. Investigation notes, witness statements, evidence submissions, and formal investigation reports must therefore be archived securely for at least two years.
Consideration of Past Disciplinary Records
A critical reform for workplace investigations and subsequent disciplinary decisions is codified in section 97.1 of the Act respecting labour standards [source: launch-source-19]. To protect individuals in the work environment, no provision in an individual employment contract, collective agreement, or decree may operate to prevent an employer from taking into account a disciplinary measure previously imposed on an employee for misconduct relating to physical or psychological violence—including sexual violence—when imposing a disciplinary sanction for new misconduct relating to those forms of violence [source: launch-source-19]. This statutory override prevents 'sunset clauses' or amnesty provisions in collective agreements from erasing past violent misconduct during disciplinary assessments.
Investigation Resolution, Mediation, and Settlement Rules
Bill 42 also amended rules governing formal dispute resolution. Under amended sections 123.3 and 123.10 of the Act respecting labour standards, an appointed mediator possesses the statutory authority to terminate a mediation if the mediator considers that their intervention is not useful or appropriate under the circumstances, requiring written notification to the parties [source: launch-source-19]. This mechanism provides a procedural safeguard where mediation may be inappropriate due to the severity of alleged misconduct.
Where disputes reach a settlement, new section 123.17 establishes that parties undertake to preserve the confidentiality of anything said, written, or done during the settlement process [source: launch-source-19]. However, the statute explicitly allows the parties, by written agreement, to relieve each other from this duty of confidentiality. To be valid, the written agreement must specify the precise elements to which the confidentiality waiver applies and indicate the date on which it takes effect.
Governance Recommendations
Internal investigation units should consider standardizing investigative frameworks. Human resources and labour relations teams should consider auditing document retention workflows to guarantee that inquiry dossiers are preserved for at least the statutory two-year minimum. In a hypothetical investigation scenario, an employer investigating a harassment complaint would reference prior violence-related disciplinary files regardless of collective agreement expiration windows, ensure the investigator maintains strict confidentiality protocols, and verify that any mutual settlement explicitly details any agreed confidentiality releases.
Legal review required
This material is intended solely for educational purposes and is not certified legal advice. Legal review must address the following verification checklist before publication or implementation: Confirm how collective agreement sunset clauses across organizational bargaining units interact with section 97.1; verify that workplace investigation policies fully document inquiry processes as required by section 81.19; review template settlement agreements to ensure compliance with the written waiver criteria in section 123.17; verify the alignment of document retention schedules with the mandatory two-year preservation timeline; and ensure legal verification of all statutory interpretations before operational release. Any uncertain or unsupported claims must be resolved.