City insists workers be vaccinated by Oct. 30
Some leeway for limited ‘accommodations’ but 37,000 employees expected to comply
All 37,000-plus city of Toronto employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 30, with limited human rights “accommodations” for those who aren’t protected, Mayor John Tory announced Thursday.
“The city of Toronto has a duty as an employer to do everything that it can to ensure that our work environment is safe for all of our employees,” Tory said at a news conference.
“Protecting our employees from COVID-19 as best we can helps to protect them and their families and loved ones, and … it helps protect members of the public who our employees interact with.”
The TTC and Toronto Public Library quickly followed the city’s lead with vaccination requirements for their employees, with the TTC workers’ union vowing to fight the rule. Toronto Police Service is reviewing options in terms of vaccination policy for officers and civilian staff. Tory said all members of the city’s public service will be required to disclose and provide proof of vaccination status by Sept. 13.
Those who are unvaccinated or refuse to disclose their status by that date must attend mandatory education on the benefits of vaccination and must provide proof of a first dose by Sept. 30.
By Oct. 30, all staff are expected to have two doses. A city press release accompanying the morning news conference said the city “will comply with its human rights obligations and accommodate employees who are legally entitled to accommodation.”
The city offered no list of acceptable reasons for accommodation.
City spokesperson Brad Ross told the Star that “the city reviews accommodation requests based on grounds outlined in the Ontario Human Rights Code.”
Those grounds do not include philosophical objections to vaccination, Ross said.
Asked about a religious objection, he said: “We would need to assess a request before making a decision.”
City officials couldn’t say what would happen to employees not vaccinated by Oct. 30 — whether unpaid leave or work-from-home allowances would be options. Tory and top city staff said no option is off the table right now.
Other vaccine policies have allowed for unvaccinated employees to provide proof of a negative test, but city officials would not say definitively if that would be part of the policy.
“Testing is not our focus right now,” said Omo Akintan, the city’s chief people officer at Thursday’s news conference, adding that the focus is on persuading employees to get vaccinated right away.
Tory said: “I have no doubt that the vast majority of our city employees — many of who have been front-line heroes working throughout the pandemic … are already vaccinated.
“But this policy will make it clear that we will not let people who don’t have a bona fide medical or human rights reason not to get vaccinated to put themselves, to put their coworkers, to put their entire workplace, and in some cases, members of the public at risk. We just cannot afford to let that happen.”
The city couldn’t say if members of the public attending city facilities, such as recreation facility users, or people paying bills at city offices or attending city meetings, will be subject to any vaccination requirements.
Coun. Joe Cressy, the chair of the city’s board of health, told the Star that as the largest service provider in the province, there are a lot of interactions between members of the public and employees and those need parameters for vaccination as well.
“While the policy we’ve crafted today is to ensure safe workplaces for our workers and their families, it’s clear that going forward there’s going to need to be clear guidance related to vaccinations in those other public settings,” said Cressy, adding it needs to be consistent across the province. “We can’t see a patchwork framework of different cities, different institutions approaching public spaces differently.”
Employees at arms-length city bodies like the TTC and Toronto Police Service will be responsible for coming up with their own policies.
Shortly after the city’s news conference, the TTC reversed course on mandatory vaccinations, saying all 16,000 of its employees must be protected against COVID-19 unless medically exempt, the Star’s Ben Spurr reports.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 responded that it will “oppose any action of the TTC which violates the rights of any member.”
The library system said it will “adopt the city’s mandatory vaccine approach for staff with the goal of protecting employees and the people we serve.”
Toronto police have not committed to any requirement that officers be vaccinated.
Allison Sparkes, a spokesperson for the Toronto police, which has 7,400 employees, said Thursday that the force is “reviewing our approach to vaccination and we will announce our approach as soon as we can.”
Sparkes said Toronto police has “encouraged safe COVID-19 practices, including vaccination, for everyone including our members.”
Tory stressed how the vast majority — more than 95 per cent — of recent hospitalizations and deaths related to the virus have been in those who are not fully vaccinated.
CUPE Local 79, representing more than 20,000 city of Toronto inside workers, said the unit has through the pandemic prioritized workers’ health and safety, encouraging them to wear protective equipment and to get vaccinated.
“Some of our members have legitimate human rights grounds for remaining unvaccinated, and I am pleased the city has said it intends to accommodate those employees,” said Local 79 president Dave Mitchell.
“As always, we will fulfil our duty to represent members with their human rights concerns in the workplace.”
Eddie Mariconda, president of CUPE Local 416 representing city outside workers and paramedics, declined to comment on the vaccination mandate until he knows more details.
Toronto is in the fourth wave of COVID-19, with exponential growth in daily infections once again raising fears over potential strain on the region’s healthcare system and the spectre of return to tighter restrictions on businesses and people.
Experts say Toronto’s relatively high vaccination rate will help reduce the number of people who get infected, seriously ill or die. But some say vaccination mandates and clearly understood rules governing the behaviour of unvaccinated people are urgently needed to keep a lid on the rising wave.
The city has about 37,000 employees across 44 operating divisions and offices, ranging from lawyers to solid waste collectors to engineers and daycare workers.
Dr. Anna Banerji, a University of Toronto expert on COVID-19 and public health measures, applauded the city for mandating vaccinations for city staff.
She predicted a very small number of workers will be able to evade vaccination under the human rights code, saying few medical conditions beyond severe allergy to vaccine, or one of its ingredients, prevent people from being immunized.
Just not wanting vaccination won’t be enough, she said, adding religious objections might, but only if a person is part of a sect on record with rules against vaccination.
“Your rights stop at the point when you’re endangering other people’s lives — that’s human rights 101,” said Banerji.
Tory has called on Premier Doug Ford to put a vaccination verification system in place for businesses, sporting events and more. The premier has announced vaccination requirements only for certain sectors.