City had just three work refusals over COVID-19 since September
Hamilton recorded just three work refusals related to COVID-19 concerns from September to December.
The Ministry of Labour found none to have met the criteria for a work refusal. No orders were issued to employers.
A provision in the Occupational Health and Safety Act stipulates workers, in limited circumstances, may refuse to work if they consider it to be unsafe. The ministry launches an investigation into the complaint if the issue wasn’t resolved between workers and employees, and subsequently rules whether the refusal holds merit.
The number of complaints filed in Hamilton, albeit low, was tied for third-most in Ontario. A total of 45 municipalities recorded work refusals over the four-month span.
Twenty workers at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre refused to work on Nov. 28 over a lack of personal protective equipment made available by their employer.
Three employees of a DriveTest centre on Kenora Avenue refused to work with clients from regions in grey zones on Nov. 23, the same day Toronto and Peel went into a 28-day lockdown.
One HSR worker in downtown Hamilton refused to drive a bus with more than 10 passengers on Dec. 28. The city transit agency currents allows passengers to use all available seats, despite calls from the union representing drivers to institute stricter limits.
It wasn’t the first time for any of the three employers where workers filed refusals over COVID-19 concerns in Hamilton.
Notably, at the Barton Street jail, workers refused to work on two separate occasions over an eight-day span in the spring.
On April 8, three employees refused to move worker inmates from “a unit with infection control precautions in place to the kitchen” because of possible exposure to COVID-19, the ministry said in a previous statement.
On April 16, three correction officers refused to work after an inmate working in the kitchen showed signs of a fever and was put into isolation. The officers didn’t want to interact with the remaining inmates in the kitchen because they weren’t isolated, the ministry said.
Neither refusal resulted in a ministry order.
The rate at which Ontario workers have refused to work because of coronavirus-related concerns has dropped significantly over the course of the pandemic.
From March 11 to May 31, the Ministry of Labour investigated 272 work refusals — 13 in Hamilton — due to COVID-19 concerns, 198 of which came during a three-week stretch. Only one employer in Ontario, a plastic manufacturer in Scarborough, was issued an order.
Meanwhile, just 79 work refusals — three in Hamilton — were investigated from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, a drop of about 70 per cent and in a larger sample size of four months instead of three.
So, are workplaces adapting to life in the COVID-19 era and becoming safer?
That’s one part of it, said Chantel Goldsmith, a Toronto employment lawyer and partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP. While employers were always required to ensure the health and safety of its employees, COVID is a whole new ball game.
“They’re getting their guidance from the public health authorities,” said Goldsmith.
The public health measures introduced since March — like social distancing, Plexiglas, personal protective equipment for workers — arrived at staggered times and, in some cases, for different regions. Masks, for example, were made mandatory in Hamilton on July 20. Ontario only issued its provincewide mask mandate on Oct. 3.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, not all of those were happening as much,” said Goldsmith. “It wasn’t as prevalent to have most people working from home, sanitizer at every store or (screening) questions at grocery stores. All of those have been huge factors.”