Union Filed Grievance Finds Purolator Unjustly Terminated Employees Who Refused Covid 19 Vaccine Only During Lifting of Mandates Time Frame
When our government implemented the vaccination policy for federal employees, they ‘highly recommended’ other companies do the same.
Purolator Canada Inc. (Purolator) quickly developed a Safer Workplace Policy (SWP), enforcing vaccination within their workforce, and leave without pay for those wishing to defend their individual rights of bodily autonomy and privacy.
After their union, Teamsters Local Union #31, filed grievances on behalf of hourly employees and owner operators, the case went to arbitration with the final decision in favour of the employees.
In the 196-page report, arbitrator Nicolas Glass stated that a policy that clearly obstructs the Charter rights of some individuals, must be continuously weighed against the reasons supporting the policy. There is a balance between the benefits of vaccination and the impediment on the rights of that individual.
With Covid-19 there was a moving scale of efficacy with vaccination. In the beginning of the pandemic, according to health officials, early data showed it to be effective against the first two variants. However, once Omicron became the dominant strain the data began to wane in favour of vaccination.
As a result, the impact to the individuals placed on leave without pay was considered to be less than the greater good gained by the vaccine mandates. As time passed, the effect on those employees increases with continued loss of livelihood, and at some point, there was an imbalance; a point where the waning benefits no longer outweigh the increasing impacts on the individual’s rights.
Glass determined that this tipping point occurred in June of 2022, with the federal government withdrawing the mandate for employees. After this time and given the changing narrative of health officials across Canada, he sees the evidence supporting the SWP as no longer valid, and the suppression of human rights no longer justifiable.
In his ruling Glass awarded reparations using the timeline through which he believed the policy to be justified; Purolator is to reimburse employees for lost wages and income between July 1st, 2022, and their first day of work after May 1st, 2023.
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