Cheat sheet: the Safety management exam

The Safety management exam lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, the passing mark is 60%, and a good share of the questions turns on two skills: reading a worker threshold without error, and calculating a benefit on the right base. This cheat sheet is organized around those two readings.

Reading the threshold table

The guide boils down to one table: five requirements of the Act respecting occupational health and safety (S-2.1), each tied to a threshold of 10, 20 or 100 workers and to a section number. What the PDF keeps repeating is how to count. The threshold is measured on the construction workers expected at the same time at the peak of the work, all employers combined. The monthly total does not enter the calculation.

The guide draws these reading examples from it:

• A site of 19 workers has a prevention program and a health and safety representative (threshold of 10), but neither a site committee nor a filing of the program with the CNESST (threshold of 20).
• Section 199 describes the content of the program and sets no threshold.
• The threshold of 25 workers for the committee is the former rule, repealed on January 1, 2023. Do not carry it in your head.
• The coordinator (threshold of 100) sits on the committee without replacing it, and the committee recommends without ordering work to stop.

The logic of the 90% benefit

The compensation module rests on the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases (A-3.001). The income replacement indemnity is 90% of weighted net income, never 90% of gross. The guide adds the mechanics that follow: on the day of the incapacity, the employer pays the rest of the day; for the next 14 full days, it pays 90% of net wages and the CNESST reimburses it.

The guide then sets side by side the deadlines that get confused: 30 days for a request for review, 60 days to contest before the Administrative Labour Tribunal, 6 months for a claim to the CNESST. A six-row table lets you reread them at a glance. For the full logic of the calculation, see our article on the 90% weighted net income indemnity.

A look inside

• Module 1: right to refuse, the inspector’s powers (correction notice or suspension), the definition of a construction site, the hierarchy of risk controls, what to do after a serious accident.
• Module 2: the presumption of an occupational injury, temporary assignment, right of return, cost allocation.
• Module 3: three rating methods, the prevention mutual, the client’s compliance certificate, registration and payment deadlines.
• Module 4: the 16 sustainable development principles, preventive withdrawal, psychological harassment.

Who it is for, and what it does not do

It is for the candidate preparing the safety exam, especially in the last few days, when you need to find a threshold, a deadline or a section fast. It reproduces no statute text: it cites sections and summarizes in our own words. It does not replace reading the texts provided at the exam (A-3.001, S-2.1 and S-2.1, r. 4), and it does not cover safety rules specific to a trade.

Last checked October 7, 2026, next review planned March 25, 2027. To see the thresholds applied on a real site, read our article on the site prevention program at 10 and 20 workers, then the Safety management exam page.