Tag Archives: COVID-19

Federal government rushes through mandatory vaccination policy, eschews meaningful consultation with unions

Image of border crossing with the words "COVID-19"

Today, the federal government announced its new mandatory vaccination policy for all federal public service workers. In doing so, they eschewed the meaningful consultation with the federal public sector unions they had promised, imposing this rushed policy in lieu of what should have been a nuanced framework.

Let us be clear: CIU fully supports ongoing vaccination efforts in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we strongly encourage our members to get vaccinated. Along with other preventative measures, vaccination campaigns across the country have played a crucial role in managing the most severe impacts of the pandemic and saved the lives of many Canadians.

That is why, earlier this year, CIU had urged the Government of Canada to adequately prioritize the vaccination of our members. Even though we processed unvaccinated travellers from around the world, we were told that no priority would be given to our members, and that we were safe to do our jobs unvaccinated. CIU then pressured provincial governments to move us up their vaccination priority list, which had varying degrees of success across different provinces and public health units.

Along with other essential workers, CIU occupies a unique position within the federal public service, with a large part of our membership having continued to work on the frontline since day one of the pandemic. We’ve ensured that our borders remained operational throughout, all the while being told that our workplaces were safe and that the preventative measures in place — which have never included vaccination — were adequate. Over time, our employer’s attitude toward risk has become more and more permissive. We have seen a consistent erosion of our preventative measures, and a downplaying of the risk of COVID transmission in the workplace:

  • The employer resumed full-contact, hands-on use of force training at the height of the third wave.
  • Full-contact CDT as part of student training continued at the peak of the third wave in some of Canada’s most infected areas.
  • COVID-19 related work refusals have consistently been rejected, with ESDC labour ruling that there was no danger.
  • Our members are consistently told that there is no need for additional PPE when dealing with COVID positive cases.
  • Despite the pandemic still going strong in parts of the country, the employer has clawed back preventative measures such as platooning, remote work, virtual training, etc.
  • Just two weeks ago, the employer refused to stop close contact training in Alberta because ‘there had not been any transmission in training’, deeming their preventative measures effective enough in the midst of a public health crisis.
  • The request to limit the number of travellers in our baggage halls has been denied because Transport Canada ‘does not require it’.
  • Our employer attempted to eliminate physically distancing in vehicles, claiming masking is effective enough.
  • Vulnerable employees and employees living with vulnerable people who have been working from home have been pressured to return to work based on the employer’s list of preventative measures (which, again, never included vaccination).
  • The employer has repeatedly cited low work-related transmission or outbreaks of COVID-19 to justify less stringent preventative measures.

It is difficult to reconcile the employer’s dismissal of sensible preventative measures with the now seemingly urgent need for all federal public service workers to be fully vaccinated or face the threat of being placed on leave without pay. Some of these very same employees were required to travel internationally without vaccine priority or interact with unvaccinated travellers and clients. To justify this policy as a means of protecting the health and safety of employees is especially hypocritical.

It bears repeating again — high vaccination rates are an important tool in the arsenal we have at our disposal against COVID-19, and we strongly urge our members who can get vaccinated to do so if they have not already. That being said, for the Government of Canada to rush through a mandatory vaccination policy on the basis of occupational health and safety, without proper consultation with the unions, and after indicating to our members for the past 20 months that COVID was not a concern in our workplaces, is extremely disingenuous.

We understand that some may find aspects of the current situation to be contentious, and we urge all of our members to maintain a respectful and professional attitude amongst themselves, as well as towards their union representatives.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada has already highlighted a full list of concerns and issues with this new policy. As made clear by PSAC in their statement, we will continue to represent unvaccinated members who have punitive action taken against them as a result of their vaccination status. Should you need assistance in this matter, please contact your Branch President.

Federal government releases vaccination policy without proper consultation — PSAC Statement & FAQ

The federal government released its vaccination policy for federal public service workers October 6, mandating vaccinations for all employees in federally regulated workplaces, including more than 160,000 PSAC members.

Treasury Board has encouraged Crown corporations, agencies, and the Canadian Forces to implement similar policies, but this policy will not immediately apply to them.

Read the full vaccination policy. 

PSAC fully supports a federal vaccination policy to protect the health and safety of our members and the Canadians they serve. We know that increasing vaccination rates is the best and most reliable way to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our workplaces and our communities and encourage our members to be vaccinated.

See also the FAQ Your rights at work: Vaccinations and COVID-19.

However, if the goal is to keep the workplace healthy and safe, this policy still falls short.

The government rushed their vaccination policy without meaningful consultation with the unions representing federal public service workers. Treasury Board gave unions less than a single business day to provide feedback on their policy, and then failed to incorporate any of the changes into their final policy. Our union supports the government’s vaccination framework, but how it is applied matters, and we expect the employer’s implementation of the policy will respect:

Members’ privacy rights: Any personal information collected must be shared on a need-to-know basis only and collected and stored for a limited period and in keeping with the Privacy Act.

Bargaining rights: Bargaining agents should be included in meaningful consultation as these frameworks and policies evolve, including adequate time to provide feedback and input.

Human rights: Members’ human rights must be protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act, including the duty to accommodate.

Health and safety: Workplace health and safety committees must be consulted about the implementation of the policy.

Equity and inclusion: The policy must consider the adverse impacts of the policy on historically disadvantaged groups of employees, including racialized, Black and Indigenous employees.

Consistency: The government’s vaccination policy should also apply to federal contractors and the general public who interact with federal public service workers to ensure the health and safety of our members. The vaccination policy also needs to be applied consistently across federal departments and agencies.

Fairness: Employees who are required to be vaccinated or who experience side effects should not have to use their own sick leave banks, and this should not be left up to the discretion of individual managers.

While the vast majority of PSAC’s membership is fully vaccinated, PSAC will continue to represent unvaccinated members who have punitive action taken against them as a result of their vaccination status.

We’ll continue to work to ensure the implementation of the policy protects the health and safety and human rights of our members while ensuring their rights to privacy are respected.

Keep your member info up to date to receive all the latest updates about the government’s vaccination policy, bargaining issues and more.

This article has also been posted on the PSAC website.

COVID-19 Update — Follow-up to question on use of 699 leave

Image of border crossing with the words "COVID-19"

The following message was sent by the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. 

We are following up on the question which was raised during our COVID-19 Update call on Tuesday.  With regards to requests from employees to take the child/person for whom they have a duty of care to get the COVID vaccine, our guidance to Departments is the following:

  • The employee should first try to schedule the vaccination appointment outside of work hours or work flexible hours to make up the time taken.
  • The employee can schedule family related leave to bring a child / person for whom they have a duty of care to the vaccination appointment.
  • If that is not possible and all Family related leave has been used, the employer could grant 699 leave for a reasonable time period to get the vaccine as this is related to COVID.

COVID-19: The employer must reconsider its position on close contact training

Image of border crossing with the words "COVID-19"

The following message was sent to the employer on June 2nd by Mark Weber, CIU’s 1st National Vice-President, and Co-Chair of the Policy Health and Safety Committee.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen our Policy Health and Safety Committee commit a great deal of time and effort to ensuring that all CBSA employees are kept as safe as possible. We’ve accomplished much that’s positive, in circumstances where the planning and implementation of every preventative measure was an urgent matter. Most Departments within the CBSA have participated proactively in this work with us, making all we’ve had to address run much more smoothly.

Our experience working with Training and Development has been uniquely negative. We’ve repeatedly learned of scheduled training from our members, without it having first been brought to our Committee as mandated by the Canada Labour Code (CLC) and Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (COHSR). We’ve been given documents to assess on the eve of training, only after insisting that they be provided. We’ve seen all they’ve developed ‘assessed’ at meetings of a health and safety ‘working group’, who we’ve learned keep no minutes, and whose composition we are entirely unaware of. We’ve been told repeatedly that everything in place was approved by a qualified person, only to learn that this is not the case. Procedures that include a 14 day quarantine period continue to be used to declare safe close contact training for employees who are not quarantining.

We recently asked to participate in a meeting with Health Canada, only to learn that the employer had the meeting without us. We were told that Health Canada will “never state that training is safe or unsafe”. Health Canada was only asked about the preventative measures in place, not the training itself. The truth is that no qualified person will say that it is now safe to ignore physical distancing, because it is not. Health Canada’s recommendation that training be reevaluated based on local pandemic conditions was ignored and again, the documents provided to Health Canada had the trainees quarantining, which is not what is happening for anyone other that our OITPs.

The odd justifications the employer side of our Committee continues to espouse for Training and Development are inexplicable given the business like, efficient manner in which all else connected to COVID has been dealt with. The culmination of this behaviour is the recent conclusion that it is not the role of the Policy Health and Safety Committee to determine when training is safe to resume, “it is ultimately management that determines the safety of training”.

The employee members of the Policy Health and Safety Committee do not believe that it is safe to resume close contact training, and we urge the employer members of our Committee to revisit their decision to recommend it. Should the decision be to forge ahead with close contact training, we ask that daily COVID testing be arranged for trainees and trainers.

No proper risk assessment has been conducted, no qualified person has assessed any of the risks associated with this training, and the first step of Part 122.2 of the CLC has been wrongly passed over. We remind the employer of their obligations under the CLC and COHSR, including Part 148 of the CLC.

CIU urges federal government to review travel exceptions

Airplane seen from above.

With the COVID-19 pandemic not showing signs of slowing down, CIU is calling upon the federal government to review current travel exceptions to better control the spread of new and existing coronavirus variants and protect Canadians everywhere.

While the Canadian government has put some measures in place to reduce the risks of COVID transmission, these have not prevented variants from spreading across the country. Several provinces are facing new challenges daily in coping with the pandemic, and more needs to be done to curb possible outbreaks and allow our overburdened healthcare system to catch up.

Frontline workers across the country, especially in the healthcare sector, are exhausted. Provincial governments are putting in place increasingly severe measures. Many Canadian workers are confronted with mounting uncertainty, and marginalized communities are being impacted disproportionately.

Yet, Border Services Officers throughout Canada continue to have to contend with frustrating situations, notably when it comes to large numbers of non-essential international flights still arriving every day at major airports, adding to the list of potential vectors of transmission. The reality is that, while we continue to grapple with the pandemic, any non-essential flight puts both our members and the Canadian public at an increased risk.

The ongoing pandemic is undoubtedly complex to manage for any country, especially one the size of Canada. However, this is all the more reason for the federal government to act decisively where it can and re-evaluate its policies regarding exceptions for entering the country during the pandemic. There may be situations where entry needs to be granted, but the government must carefully establish what these are in order to more effectively manage the current crisis — and not needlessly expose Border Services personnel and other frontline workers.