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Suicidal jobs Anyone who's worked in a "suit job" for any period of time can attest to the indoctrination propaganda they are subjected to. Employee meetings and newsletters almost always try, as their primary goal, to get people to transform the company's interests into their own: work harder, be more productive, higher company profits mean a better life for you too. Recent Statistics Canada figures show that more and more people are working overtime, both paid and unpaid. But what happens when burnout and depression set in and employees go on long-term disability? In a worst-case scenario, who's responsible? A recent superior court decision in Montreal may set an important, if harrowing, precedent for such cases. Judge Louis Crête ruled that the 1990 suicide of CN employee Michel Béchard was a direct result of a work-related back injury suffered 10 years earlier. While Béchard's case was not one of burnout, the court agreed he committed suicide due to a prolonged depression which resulted from his injury and from CN's attempts to get him off disability and back on the job. "This ruling will have ramifications in cases of burnout, because the principles are the same," said Denis Poitras, lawyer for the Béchard family. "Companies always argue that depression results from purely personal factors--alcoholism, marriage problems, genetic predispositions. In this case, the court recognized that the workplace played a key role."
CN must now pay a settlement to Béchard's wife and monthly pensions to his two children. Philip Preville
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