The deluge of cases sets up a crucial legal test of vaccine mandates imposed by employers, one that pits the individual rights of workers against employers’ health and safety concerns amid a pandemic that has dragged on for almost two years.

“Leading labour and employment lawyers told The Globe and Mail that cases involving the termination of unvaccinated employees hinge on a number of factors, including whether employees are required to come into work, details of an employee’s initial hiring contract and whether the employee is unvaccinated on grounds other than medical or religious ones.

“I have never had, in my 20-year career, so many calls, e-mails, queries about a single issue as I have about employees being let go or put on indefinite leave because of a company vaccine mandate,” said Lior Samfiru, co-managing partner at the Toronto-based labour and employment law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP.

Shaun Parker, a Calgary-based partner at the Bay Street law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, told The Globe that he too has started to see a wave of firings of employees who refuse to get vaccinated. “We’re seeing this mostly in the private sector. These employees are now engaging counsel and trying to pursue severance pay.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-scores-of-unvaccinated-workers-are-filing-wrongful-dismissal-claims/?