What happens when you can’t be vaccinated for bona fide medical reason? Often, nothing good.
Vaccines are the best tool we have for managing both the transmission and severity of outcomes associated with COVID-19. What happens though if you are medically unable to be vaccinated? While these employees are entitled to statutory protection, in practice, if they are terminated without notice or pay in lieu thereof or denied hiring opportunities all they are left with is litigation. The accommodations required for these vaccine exempt employees can create resentment amongst their colleagues and frustrate their employers leading to reprisal. The remedy for this is also litigation.
One maxim amongst employers when confronted with employee claims is that “time is on their side”. Given the unique circumstances of the vaccine exempt this is just not so. Mitigation is not realistic and additional injury as well as condemnation by Courts are easily foreseeable. Contingency fees are permissible in Ontario and cost awards are on the rise so employers should not expect that claims will just go away. Compassion for employees who through no fault of their own cannot be vaccinated might not only be the kinder path for employers who are unable or unwilling to accommodate, it is also most likely to be the least expensive. You can pay the lawyer advertising a lengthy list of trials won and lost and then pay your employee as well as their counsel or…