3 total
Arbitrator's blanket ban on vaccine-related discipline was unreasonable, but premature termination justified reinstating hospital workers.
The applicant hospital sought judicial review of an arbitration award that reinstated two employees terminated for failing to comply with a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
The arbitrator had ruled that an employer can never discipline an employee for refusing to consent to medical treatment.
The Divisional Court found this conclusion unreasonable, as it failed to balance the hospital's duty to protect patients against the employees' privacy interests in the context of a pandemic.
However, the court upheld the arbitrator's ultimate decision to reinstate the employees, noting that terminating them after only two weeks of unpaid leave was premature.
The application for judicial review was dismissed.
The Court of Appeal upheld the refusal to grant an interlocutory injunction against a hospital's mandatory vaccination policy, finding no remedial gap in the labour relations regime.
The National Organized Workers Union appealed the denial of an interlocutory injunction to prevent Sinai Health System from enforcing a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
The union argued that the policy compelled vaccination without informed consent, constituting irreparable harm not remediable by arbitration.
The Court of Appeal upheld the application judge's decision, finding no error in declining to exercise the Superior Court's residual jurisdiction in labour relations.
The court affirmed that the potential harm of unpaid leave or termination due to non-compliance with a workplace policy is fundamentally related to employment and is remediable by a labour arbitrator through reinstatement and compensation for lost wages, thus not creating a 'remedial gap' that would warrant Superior Court intervention.
Interim injunctions against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies denied; labour arbitration provides adequate remedy and harm is reparable.
The applicant unions sought interim injunctions to restrain the respondent employers from enforcing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies pending the outcome of labour arbitrations.
The court dismissed the Sinai application on the basis that the labour arbitration process provided an adequate alternative remedy, precluding the exercise of the court's residual jurisdiction.
The court dismissed the TTC application on the merits of the injunction test, finding that the loss of employment or income did not constitute irreparable harm and that the balance of convenience strongly favoured the employer's obligation to protect public health and workplace safety.
