Edy Haddad and Brian Mabee of Peninsula Canada made a presentation called “Your Roadmap for Vaccines and COVID-19 in the Workplace”. They talked about what to do if staff refuse the vaccine. You need to educate staff, talk to staff about the vaccine and have a clear policy on vaccinations. Companies need to treat vaccination information like medical records. To keep your workplace safe & compliant you need to track staff vaccination status to help with recalling staff & keeping employees safe.
To reopen your workplace you must assess the workplace capacity for safety and ensure the compliance your health & safety policies for social distancing, disinfection and masking, etc. You need to review your existing COVID procedures, their effectiveness, staff compliance, staff & visitor screening and legislative changes. You should develop policies to recall staff considering phasing recalls, criteria to base recalls on such as seniority or order of layoff, etc. and recall notices. Employment contracts and handbooks should be updated incorporating legislative changes, human rights concerns, addressing vaccination policies and clarifying responsibilities and expectations.
Addressing vaccination in policies and contracts helps to: mitigate risk; clarify expectations; resolve disputes; outline responsibilities; makes training & enforcement easier; and protects from compliance violations.
Penalties for violating ESA and OHS are: financial; legal costs even when winning; cost of wasted management time; poor employee relations & morale; adverse publicity; and reporting to other agencies such as Canada Revenue Agency.