November 9, 2021
On November 9, 2021, an Ontario arbitrator dismissed a policy grievance challenging a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. In Paragon Protection Ltd. and UFCW Local 333, unreported, the Employer, a security guard company, had required all its employees to be fully vaccinated by October 31, 2021, or face potential disciplinary measures, up to and including termination. The policy was challenged by the Union as being unreasonable..
The Employer employed approximately 4400 security guards and operated at more than 450 client sites in Ontario. A majority of those client sites had mandatory vaccination policies in place, requiring exclusively vaccinated security personnel and in some instances, excluding all non-vaccinated individuals from those sites.
The Employer introduced its vaccination policy on September 3, 2021. The vaccination policy required that all employees be fully vaccinated by October 31, 2021. For a two-dose vaccine, employees had to receive their first dose by September 30, 2021 and their second dose by October 31, 2021. For a single dose vaccine, employees had to receive the dose by September 30, 2021. For employees assigned to client sites that required all personnel to be fully vaccinated before October 31, 2021, those employees had to be fully vaccinated by that earlier date.
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