MONTREAL -- While wearing a face mask will soon become mandatory on public transit in Quebec, daycare educators are asking that they no longer be forced to wear them at work all the time.
Currently, early childhood educators and home child care providers are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) - a visor or goggles and a mask - at almost all times
But in an interview Thursday, Valerie Grenon, president of a union for child-care workers affiliated with the CSQ, said she believes that using PPE should be recommended, but not mandatory.
She said that wearing PPE interferes with communication with children, sometimes causes nausea and dizziness in certain educators, in addition to hindering their vision, since the visor will sometimes fog up.
Grenon said that with public health authorities deconfining bars, water parks and restaurants, it seems paradoxical that daycare services, which always serve the same groups of children, are required to constantly have protective equipment worn by their educators.
The union is requesting that the rules be relaxed, both by Quebec's ministry of families and the province's workplace safety commission.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2020.
