Court Upholds Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Verification Policy

Although it wasn’t necessarily something they had planned to do, when clients began insisting that contractor workers present proof of vaccination to gain entry, housekeeping companies adopted mandatory vaccination verification policies for their own employees. Not wanting to sue the clients, the companies and unions agreed to go to court to ask for a declaration of whether the vaccination verification policies were legal. While conceding that the policies infringed on Charter privacy rights, the Qu‚bec court concluded that the policies were valid given the current COVID public health order. As a result, the employer had the right to require employees to provide verification of their vaccination status [Union des employ‚s et employ‚s de service, Local 800 c Services m‚nagers Roy lt‚e., 2021 CanLII 114756 (QC SAT), November 15, 2021].