When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled his election platform on Sept. 1, he made a promise to employers: “we’ll protect businesses that mandate vaccinations from unjustified lawsuits.” Now, employment lawyers say lawsuits from fired unvaccinated workers are beginning to pile up — and the federal government’s protections are nowhere to be seen. “We are seeing a huge amount of cases, claims, lawsuits involving terminations resulting from an individual’s vaccine status,” said Lior Samfiru, a Toronto employment lawyer and co-founder of Samfiru Tumarkin LLP. “In fact, in my 20 years of practising law, I have not seen so many cases dealing with the same issue over such a short period of time.” Read more: COVID-19 vaccines for truck drivers ‘right thing to do,’ Duclos says as mandate kicks in “It’s definitely a real issue that employers and employees are dealing with,” he said.
The issue started bubbling up months ago. In November, a union representing TTC employees asked a trial judge to halt the transit commission’s vaccine policy, claiming it could cause service disruptions as unvaccinated employees get fired.
The judge declined the request, stating, “the potential for unvaccinated workers to spread COVID-19 to co-workers or riders is a risk the TTC should not have to accept.
It is a risk which is inconsistent with its obligation to create a safe workplace for its employees and a safe way of getting around the city for its riders.” Over in B.C., a woman was fired from her accounting job in mid-October after disobeying her employer’s COVID-19 mandate, according to the Vancouver Sun.