Lawyer explains worker rights for COVID-19 vaccines and boosters

Workplaces are implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates but with third doses and booster shots on the horizon for many people, there are question about how far a vaccination policy can go.

Hena Singh is a lawyer and workplace investigator. She's also a partner at Singh Lamarche LLP in Toronto.

She explained to Craig Norris, host of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition, that the law is pretty clear on what employers can ask of employees and when they're allowed to terminate a person's employment.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Craig Norris: When it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, third doses or boosters, what are employers allowed to ask for? 

Hena Singh: Just like mandatory vaccination policies, an employer can require that you get a booster or the third dose. 

There's nothing different between the booster and the original two vaccinations that employers could previously require. 

I think a lot of the confusion is that people feel that employers are telling them that they have to get the vaccination. And individuals have the right to choose what they do with their bodies. So an employer can't tell them that they have to get it. But the employer can tell them that there's repercussions to their employment if they don't. 

So an employer could actually say: 'We're going to terminate you if you don't get the booster,' … or they can put you on a mandatory leave of absence or many other things. 

The only exception to that is if there is a Human Rights Code exemption, which is medical or religious exemption, which would prevent you from getting the booster. 

CN: So how is that different than forcing people to get it? 

HS: Well, if you think about it, if people were forced to get it, we would have a 100 per cent vaccination rate in Ontario. And now we only have a [85 per cent of people eligible vaccinated] in Ontario. So clearly people aren't forced to get it because there's [15] per cent of the population that hasn't gotten it.

But employers can say there are repercussions to your employment, just like the government is saying, there's repercussions to your ability to go to restaurants and bars and gyms if you don't get it. So there's repercussions if you don't get it, but no one's forcing you to get it. 

CN: So to be perfectly clear, an employer could state, say, 9:00 a.m. 'If you're not vaccinated, you're fired.' And that's legal?