Juno News - Smith considering back pay for Alberta’s unvaccinated workers

00:00:00.000 There was a New York court decision that came out a few days back that said anyone who was

00:00:04.800 fired for a vaccine mandate should receive back pay. Is that aspect of it something you would

00:00:09.340 like to see in an Alberta response? Retroactive pay for time that these people would have been

00:00:14.240 working had they not been put out of work because of the mandate? I certainly saw that court decision

00:00:20.080 and I suspect that we're going to see more court decisions along those lines. I want us to be at

00:00:25.280 the lead in making amends for some of the harms that were caused over the last two and a half

00:00:29.440 years. So I would have to consult with the different departments to find out how many

00:00:35.260 staff would have been in that position. How many did return to work? Because a number of them did

00:00:38.980 return to work and what the cost implications of that would be. But I think that the court

00:00:44.700 judgment is pretty clear. We've got to be mindful of that. And also businesses here have to be

00:00:50.640 mindful of that as well. That I'm still hearing that there are some organizations that are requiring

00:00:56.360 those kind of mandates. And I think that that is the first of what might be several court decisions

00:01:01.880 that end up causing a rethink on what has happened over the last two and a half years. So I want to

00:01:07.720 make sure that I'm doing things sort of in a legally appropriate way. And so I'm just going to wait until

00:01:13.080 I get that that legal advice. But I suspect we're going to see more judgments like the one we just saw.

Juno News - November 02, 2022