⯀ More employers unveil policies as workplaces reopen,
Public, private sectors unveiling their own policies as workers head back to the office
After considering the issue for months, and in some cases encouraged by government announcements, more employers in both the public and private sectors are unveiling mandatory vaccination policies for workers returning to the office.
Sun Life Financial Inc. told workers this week vaccines will be mandatory for those returning to the insurance company’s offices, a move that followed Shopify Inc.’s chief executive officer tweeting last week that employees meeting up must be vaccinated, “because science.”
Porter Airlines said Wednesday that when it resumes service next month, workers must be vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test and, on Thursday, the city of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission both announced mandatory vaccination
policies. At the federal level, Ottawa said last week vaccines will be mandatory for public servants and in Ontario, the government announced a vaccine policy on Tuesday (though not mandatory shots) for teachers, health-care workers and other public servants.
Employment lawyers say much of their time lately has been dominated by inquiries from clients about requiring employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to the office.
“This is the main question we’re getting right now,” said Hena Singh, a partner at Toronto employment law boutique firm Singh Lamarche LLP. “Many employers are saying, ‘Can we have a mandatory vaccination policy?’ And the answer is, ‘Yes.’ ” Singh said that has come as a surprise to some of her clients, but says she has advised them that while employers cannot force employees to get vaccinated, they are also not required to continue to employ workers who choose not to do so.
She noted this does not mean they can terminate workers’ employment without paying them for a reasonable notice period and also that human rights laws require employers to accommodate people who cite religious or medical reasons for not getting the shot.
Shane Todd, an employment law partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, said employers have been mulling this issue over since at least January, many approaching it with “trepidation.”
“Lots of employers have been preparing policies and talking about it, but none of them had, until quite recently, jumped into the fray to say that they were going to (implement vaccine policies),” Todd said. He added that the “inflection point” seemed to be federal and provincial announcements on vaccine policies for public sector employees.
“Once the federal and provincial governments started to take positions on the issues, I think employers felt more comfortable also doing what they needed to do.”
In its announcement about mandatory vaccines for federal employees last week, Ottawa also said it “expects” employers in federally regulated sectors — such as banks, insurance companies and telecommunications and broadcast companies— to require vaccination policies for their employees. “The government will work with these employers to ensure this result,” it said.
Sun Life, which notes that it is regulated by a federal body but also provincially regulated as a workplace, said it was working on its vaccine policy before the federal announcement.
In an internal communication this week first reported by the Globe and Mail, the insurer provided new details on pilot projects for returning to the office in small numbers and in phases.
“Employees choosing to work from an office as part of our pilot must attest to being fully vaccinated before entering an office,” said Sun Life spokesperson Nadine Jahangir Gerrard. “With vaccines now widely available, we believe this is the best way to keep everyone healthy and safe.”
Asked about their own vaccine policies Thursday, major Canadian banks and telecom companies said they had no news to share at this time. However, many emphasized that they have been encouraging all employees to get vaccinated and providing paid time off to do so.
“The federal stance is an ‘expectation’ for vaccine requirements for industries like banking — not a mandate, at this point,” said Aaron Boles, a spokesperson for the Canadian Bankers Association, who reiterated that banks have been encouraging vaccination among employees.
There are many considerations that go into a good workplace vaccine policy, Todd said, including how to accommodate workers who choose not to get vaccinated based on grounds protected by human rights legislation. Accommodations could include daily or weekly rapid testing or limited permission to continue working from home.
Other factors employers need to consider are whether to require proof of vaccination or ask employees to attest to their status, how to handle workers’ privacy rights when dealing with sensitive medical information, and how to respond to workers who simply refuse to get vaccinated.
Unions are also playing a role in advocating for employers to accommodate unvaccinated workers while trying to ensure safe workplaces for other employees.