The Home Office’s UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) department this week confirmed upcoming changes to the way in which employers will be able to check a prospective employee’s right to work in the UK from April 6, 2022.
As expected, in the UK there has been an increase in employees seeking to bring claims of automatic unfair dismissal where they have been dismissed for safety-related reasons stemming from COVID-19.
In Canada Post Corporation and Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the arbitrator denied CUPW’s cease and desist application filed under the collective agreement, which arose when the employer imposed a mandatory vaccination policy.
In Teamster’s Local Union 847 v. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the arbitrtor denied a union’s grievance over an employer’s policy that required its employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to disclose their vaccine status.
Ontario announced that commencing January 31, 2022, in the absence of concerning trends, it would begin to take steps to cautiously and gradually ease public health measures in phases with 21 days between each step.
In Bunge Hamilton Canada, Hamilton, Ontario v. United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175 (Bunge), Arbitrator Robert J. Herman dismissed a union grievance challenging the employer’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.