Since late fall 2021, we have seen a steady flow of arbitration awards emerge in Ontario and British Columbia that consider issues relating to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies in the unionized workplace.
An arbitrator recently decided that the mandatory vaccination policy of BC Hydro was reasonably necessary to justify the significant intrusion on its employees’ bodily integrity and medical privacy - but the policy's discipline aspect was unreasonable.
An arbitrator in British Columbia held that an employer rightfully terminated an employee who was ineligible for work for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine despite a government order requiring it.
An arbitrator has upheld the Toronto District School Board’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, determining determined that the policy did not infringe section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was a reasonable exercise of management rights.
An arbitrator has made another contribution to the “weight of authority” in Ontario labour arbitration awards pertaining to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies in unionized workplaces.
On March 22, 2022, Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox signed HB 63 into law, amending legislation passed in the Utah Legislature’s second special session of 2021 related to vaccine mandates in the workplace.
