As we enter the third year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. businesses are implementing long-delayed return-to-office plans and hoping to establish a new equilibrium.
On April 22, 2022, Ontario announced that it is maintaining the existing provincial masking requirements in select higher-risk indoor settings, as well as other current directives, until June 11, 2022.
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.
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board met on April 21, 2022, and formally approved the third readoption of its COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard by a 6-1 vote.
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.
