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.
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.
Bill 10, the Labour Relations Code Amendment Act, 2022, introduced on April 6, 2022, would make significant amendments to British Columbia’s Labour Relations Code.
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 Ontario arbitrator recently upheld a retirement home’s mandatory vaccination policy as a reasonable workplace rule consistent with the collective agreement, the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Retirement Homes Act, 2010.
On April 5, 2022, Ontario announced that, in an effort to help workers with rising costs and inflation, it will be raising its general minimum wage by 8% from $15 per hour to $15.50 per hour, commencing October 1, 2022.
