Labour lawyers in demand as Canadian companies fire thousands of unvaccinated workers

Canadian employers are firing or putting on unpaid leave thousands of workers who refused to get COVID-19 shots,

Canadian employers are firing or putting on unpaid leave thousands of workers who refused to getCOVID-19 shots, squeezing an already tight labour market and raising prospects of potentially disruptive legal challenges.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised vaccine mandates as a central part of his successful campaignfor re-election in September, setting a precedent that has spread from the public to the private sector.

The mandate for federal workers is one of the world’s strictest, and the government has extended it to federally regulated spaces, which include airports, and to air and rail travelers.

Across Canada, hospitals, banks, insurers, school boards, police and some provincial adminstrations are now implementing similar policies for current and future hires.

Unvaccinated workers whose livelihoods are on the line – in a country where more than 83 per cent of the eligible population over 12 years old have had their shots – are flooding labour lawyers with calls.

Air Canada and WestJet airlines alone, where well over 90 per cent of staff are vaccinated, are suspending hundreds who are not, and demanding that new hires get inoculated. Toronto transit agencies are likewise putting hundreds on unpaid leave and reducing some services.

Ottawa Hospital, the capital’s largest and where more than 99 per cent of staff are fully vaccinated, put on unpaid leave 186 people who failed to prove they were. Services will not be cut, however, said spokeswoman Michaela Schreiter.

While the unvaccinated have some hopes of collecting severance pay or employment insurance, the legal advice that many are getting is that simply not wanting the shot is not grounds for a lawsuit.