Town of Oakville workers could be fired if not fully vaccinated

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Published September 14, 2021 at 6:13 pm

All Town of Oakville employees will have to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31.

Those employees who are non-compliant of the Town’s new mandatory vaccine policy could be placed on unpaid leave, possibly going as far as seeing their employment terminated.

This comes after Town Council unanimously voted to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all municipal workers and council members at a special meeting late Monday afternoon.

Beginning next Monday, Sept. 20, town staff must inform the human resources department of their vaccination status. There will be some exemptions under medical grounds.

Rapid antigen testing will be available for all employees until Oct. 31. The Town will provide time off for employees to get the vaccine.

“We will certainly be working with staff on the accommodation,” said Oakville Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Jane Clohecy. “It is in limited range, but we are looking for them to disclose that on Oct. 20, so that we have some time to work through that with them. That will definitely happen.”

When asked at Monday’s meeting about non-compliant employees being placed on unpaid leave and it leading to possible termination, the Oakville CAO said this is standard for the Town.

“All of the Town’s policies are subject to dismal if they’re not compliant,” she said. “This is not an unusual thing relative to policies. The Town sets policies in terms of requirements they expect employees to be abiding to and where they don’t abide to them it could result in termination.”

The new vaccine policy will apply to all employees from full- and part-time staff to temporary staff, contract employees, students, board members, members of council, consultants, tenants and leaseholders, as well as visitors setting foot into town facilities.

The Town said development of their new policy aligns with the recent recommendation from Halton Region’s Medical Officer Health, Dr. Meghani, that all local employers address the need for a workplace vaccination policy to protect their workers and the public from COVID-19.

 

 

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