Canadian tech companies pledge to give staff time to get COVID-19 vaccinations

 

TORONTO -- A growing number of Canadian tech businesses are promising to allow their staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19 on company time.

At least 35 tech companies in the country, including SkipTheDishes, Borrowell, and FreshBooks, have signed a new pledge from the Council of Canadian Innovators vowing to let their staff slip out of work to get the shot. 

They say they are keen on giving workers the time because vaccinations are more important than business as usual.

The signatories will try to tackle misinformation by providing reliable information from public health agencies about vaccine safety and efficacy to employees.

They are promising to share information with staff about where, when and how people can be vaccinated, as soon as the shots are available to the wider population.

Canada has so far administered just over 738,000 doses of the vaccine to health-care workers and long-term care home residents.