Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

October 24, 2018

Canadian HR Reporter Weekly is a premium service available to human resources professionals that features workplace news, best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers.

Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/1043129

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 1 of 3

2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CANADIAN HR REPORTER WEEKLY Many Ontario nurses will no longer be forced to wear masks while on duty if they were not vaccinated for in- fluenza now that the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) has won a grievance arbitration case against a Toronto hospital and the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA). "e policy is illogical and makes no sense — the exact opposite of it being reasonable," said arbitrator William Kaplan in his Sept. 6 decision. "Requiring unvaccinated (health-care workers) to wear surgical or procedural masks — notwithstanding the inherent illogicality of it all — is unreasonable, and so, therefore, is the policy compelling it." "In the face of all of this, the 'ask' that (health-care workers) wear a mask for their entire shift for possibly months on end when entirely free of symptoms is completely unreasonable and is contrary to the collective agreement." e OHA said it was disappointed with the decision. "Hospital leaders enacted this policy in good faith to protect these populations from what could be a potentially fatal illness," said Aslan Hart, public affairs specialist at the OHA. "e top priority of all hospitals is to provide patients with a safe environment while they receive care. During flu season, hospitals are highly congested environments that are serving the province's most vulnerable patients, including the frail, elderly, children and those too sick to receive immunization." And other jurisdictions in Canada have implemented this policy, she said. "Most notably in British Columbia, a similar provincial policy was upheld by an arbitrator appointed by the provincial Labour Relations Board, who ruled that given the seriousness of influenza, a program that increases immunization rates in the health-care setting was a reasonable policy." Background e case was first brought to arbitration after Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital imposed such a policy for health- care workers during the 2014-15 flu season. Sinai Health System, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, North York General Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Michael Garron Hospital and Baycrest Health Sci- ences were also part of the case. e ONA immediately grieved the policy after it was implemented. "We felt that the mask issue is not only something that wasn't necessary, and actually not proven by science (as seen) from most of the decisions or awards and arbitrators — they certainly weren't convinced that there was scientific evidence to support it," said Vicki McKenna, ONA president in Toronto. "We just felt that it was unnecessary; these policies were obtrusive and unnecessary and not supported in science, so that's why we took it forward." In his Sept. 6 ruling, Kaplan cited a 2015 decision regarding a similar policy at a hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. "e policy was introduced at (Sault Area Hospital) for the purpose of driving up vaccination rates," said arbitrator James Hays in his 2015 decision. "I also find that the weight of scientific evidence said to support the VOM (vaccinate-or-mask) policy on patient safety grounds is insufficient to warrant the imposition of a mask-wearing requirement for up to six months every year." Accordingly, Sault Area Hospital discontinued its Vaccinate-or-mask policy struck down by Ontario arbitrator 'e policy is illogical and makes no sense' BY JOHN DUJAY Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. HR News at Your Fingertips THE LATEST NEWS THE BEST COMMENTARY DELIVERED WEEKLY FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Visit www.hrreporter.com/ canadian-hr-newswire

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Canadian HR Reporter Weekly - October 24, 2018