Workplace vaccination mandates will likely include a third shot, say labour law experts

Two out of three ain't bad - unless your office has a mandatory COVID vaccine policy.

As the COVID vaccine booster rollout widens, labour law experts say workplace mandates will eventually include a third shot.

Once the boosters become widely available, every company which has a vaccine mandate will add the booster," said Howard Levitt, senior partner at Levitt Sheikh LLP, a law firm specializing in labour and employment law.

On Monday, Ontario began accepting bookings for COVID booster shots for anyone 50 and over who got their second shot at least 168 days earlier. In early January, bookings will be extended to include people 18 and over. The widening availability of booster shots come as Ontario faces rapidly-rising COVID case counts, and a growing threat from the Omicron variant.

Workplace COVID mandates typically defer to public health authorities on the definition of fully vaccinated," meaning that the policies won't need much tweaking at all, Levitt said. That means the pitched battles put up by some unions and workers against initial mandates are even less likely to succeed this time around.

It's exactly the same thing. The policies follow the advice of chief medical officers, which follows the science," said Levitt.

If a workplace vaccine policy didn't include a clause which allowed for changes to the definition of fully vaccinated, employers would have a harder time changing it, said Gregory Sills, an associate at the Samfiru Tumarkin law firm.

This is something that many prudent employers were contemplating at the outset," said Sills. Employers who have been introducing policies to begin with, ought to have considered including boosters in the future. Or ... built in language that provides for ongoing modifications as things progress, Given that the COVID situation is changing on a seemingly daily basis."

Companies and organizations that already have COVID vaccine mandates are keeping a close eye on the shifting situation.

At the Toronto Transit Commission, which faced strong union resistance - and had to pare back some routes in the wake of the mandate - there's no change just yet.

We are actively encouraging employees to track their eligibility and get their booster when it's time. We continue to monitor and follow public health advice and provincial legislation for what constitutes full vaccination," TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said in an email. Currently, the TTC considers an employee fully vaccinated against COVID if they've had two shots of Astra Zeneca, Pfizer or Moderna, or one shot of the vaccine produced by Johnson and Johnson.

At HSBC, the company's vaccine mandate doesn't currently require a booster, said spokesperson Sharon Wilks. But that, she said, could change.

Health Canada's definition of fully vaccinated does not include a booster. As a federally-regulated employer we take our guidance from them and are watching their guidance closely," said Wilks in an email.

Last week, the federal government announced it was mandating COVID vaccinations for federally-regulated employers including banks. The new regulation is expected to come into force in early 2022. In October, the federal government had already instituted a similar policy for federal government employees as well as federally-regulated transportation companies including airlines.

At Sunlife Financial, which has been slowly reopening its offices to fully vaccinated employees for the past few months, the company is keeping a close eye on that definition as government advice shifts along with the course of the pandemic.

But even before the definition of fully vaccinated changes, the company is already encouraging employees to get the booster if they're eligible, said spokesperson Gannon Loftus in an email.

We believe the COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to protect the most vulnerable and get back to doing the things in life that we cherish, safely," said Loftus. Once the COVID-19 booster is widely available, we will follow public health guidance and update our vaccine policy as appropriate."

With files from Jacob Lorinc

Business Reporter