Employment Lawyer on Vax Mandates
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Summary
The pressure is on to vaccinate, and the list of companies choosing to mandate vaccines for staff seems to be growing every day, raising concerns and questions about workers' rights. Employment lawyer Lior Samfirou joins Candice and Jasmine to discuss the implications of mandatory vaccines in the workplace.
Transcript
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With the Delta variant circulating and cases rising, the pressure is on to vaccinate.
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And the list of companies choosing to mandate vaccines for staff seems to be growing every day,
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raising concerns and questions about workers' rights.
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Employment lawyer Lior Samfirou joins us now for another segment of Work What's Next.
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So we have the MLSC, the TTC, and even some banks, just to name a few,
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coming out with vaccine mandates, some would say even ultimatums for staff.
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It kind of feels like we're in uncharted waters here when it comes to vaccine mandating in the workplace
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and with these workplaces figuring things out as they go.
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Well, I think a lot of these employers that are doing this, you mentioned just a few,
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are under the assumption that this is legal, that this is something that they can do.
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But there are some significant concerns with the legality of imposing vaccines.
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In most cases, for private enterprises, it's still not legal.
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It could be a human rights violation to impose a vaccine.
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And a lot of these employers are potentially doing it simply thinking,
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well, we're going to do it regardless of the legal liability.
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Another liability that these employers will have is if they do let employees go
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because they did not get vaccinated, they'll have to pay them severance,
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And I don't think that's something these businesses are taking into account in consideration.
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So it's not as simple as simply saying we've decided to vaccinate everyone
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and you have to be vaccinated in order to work here.
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So the TTC union, representing about 12,000 of TTC staff,
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was pretty swift in coming out and saying that they would fight these mandates,
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And I think that the likelihood of succeeding is actually quite good.
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It is potentially a human rights violation to require a medical procedure
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and also to distinguish as between people with COVID and without COVID.
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So I think the union may well be successful and potentially private individuals,
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non-unionized individuals who choose to challenge the mandatory vaccine policy
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that their employer imposes may be successful at the human rights tribunal
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or in the courts in challenging those policies.
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And again, a lot of employers are doing it despite that risk.
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Thinking that perhaps this is for the better public good,
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but it does come with significant legal liability.
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So the province has also come out with a mandate around vaccines.
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In other words, can staff be fired if they choose not to get vaccinated?
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So the province called this a mandatory vaccine policy,
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but what's important to remember is that it's not mandatory vaccine.
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In other words, employers are required to have a policy about vaccines,
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but they still cannot choose to implement vaccines as mandatory or else.
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The only thing the province is requiring employers to do
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is if you're not going to have employees that are vaccinated,
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So that does not allow employers to implement mandatory vaccine policies,
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to have vaccines as a cross-the-board requirement,
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It would have been very easy for the provincial government to say,
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you have to have vaccines in certain industries or else you cannot have employees.
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And as of right now, employers in public sector,
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employers in the healthcare sector or in other sectors
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still cannot unilaterally choose to impose vaccines.
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And finally, you've also been getting questions from clients over work performance issues.
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So can an employer terminate for cause due to performance issues?
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Keep in mind that a termination for cause means you're let go without any compensation,
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and that is considered the capital punishment of the employment relationship.
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So the fact that you may have done something wrong or even a few things wrong
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does not mean you can be let go for cause without compensation.
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and usually if the employer has warned you in advance,