Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am a Public Interest Advocate. I have extensive training and advocacy experience supporting workers in exercising their workplace rights, including rights to work in safe and healthy workplaces.
Legal consultation: Due to the serious issues related to COVID-19 vaccines, please consider seeking legal consultation with an employment lawyer who can hear the specific details of your work situation and give you legal advice about what you can do in your unique situation.
Access Pro Bono BC: You can apply for a FREE brief legal consultation at the link below in BC.
Link: https://www.accessprobono.ca/
Pro Bono Canada: You can find other FREE legal resources in Canada at the link below.
Link: https://probonocanada.org/
Introduction
Labour Day 2021, occurring on September 6th, 2021, is a good day to provide workers with some information, tips, and resources about their rights with many employers beginning to implement mandatory workplace vaccinations with COVID-19 vaccines. I am heavily borrowing from previous articles I have published on these topics.
Overview of what is presented in this article:
■ Workers Compensation Boards in Canada and COVID-19 vaccinations
■ Criminal Negligence and Liability for Employers: Criminals laws in Canada
■ Informed Consent Laws Being Violated by Employers: Potential Civil and Criminal Negligence
■ What To Do If Your Employer is Telling You that COVID-19 Vaccines Are Mandatory
■ Links to legal Notice of Liabilities you can give to employers who are coercing, or mandating workers to get vaccines
■ A link to an article about Informed Consent questions you should ask your employer BEFORE you get a COVID-19 vaccine
■ Questions to ask your Extended Health and Life Insurance policy holders
■ Documentation of Employment Matters Related to Vaccines
■ Videos: Mandatory Jab -- What Can You Do and Your Rights to Decline a Vaccine in the Context of Employment
Every province and territory in Canada has a Workers Compensation Board ("WCB"). Find your WCB by visiting the link below:
WCB's in Canada: https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/information/wcb_canada.html
BEFORE workers get vaccines at work (including COVID-19 vaccines, but not limited to this), it is important to understand the following:
➤ Search for "COVID-19 Vaccines" pages on the WCB website. Learn about how vaccine injuries are considered workplace injuries and the process for reporting and initiating vaccine injury workplace injury claims.
➤ If I experience an Adverse Health reaction (AHR) to a vaccine, is this considered a workplace injury in my province/territory?
➤ What are the steps I need to take to report AHR to my employer and the WCB? Has my employer outlined the steps for reporting AHR's post-vaccine?
➤ What medical and other evidence will I need to apply for compensation for AHR-related workplace injuries and disabilites?
➤ Do I have copies of employment policies, communications, and emails that communicate expectations for me to get a vaccine in my employment at home in a safe, secure place?
➤ Do I have a copy of the steps the employer has outlined for reporting workplace injury claims for AHR's, and how time and wage loss will be handled by the employer?
➤ How will I be paid for wage loss and health care benefits due to time taken off work to deal with AHR injury claims while the WCB and the employer investigate my vaccine injuries/AHR's?
Criminal Negligence and Liability for Employers: Criminals laws in Canada
➤ Canada has created criminal laws that can be used to file criminal complaints against negligent employers and supervisors who expose workers to unsafe workplace conditions through negligence. Sec. 217.1 states the following:
Duty of persons directing work
217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.
Link: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/page-51.html
- The employers of workers who become injured and/or die as a result of employer workplace negligence under workers' compensation legislation can have criminal complaints made about them with local law enforcement.
- The Canadian Department of Justice has created a page that has a number of important documents that discuss criminal negligence charges and the outcomes of specific cases in which employers have been successfully prosecuted under sec.
Link: https://canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/westray/p3.html
Evidence of COVID-19 Vaccine-related Injuries in Canada, UK, US
- There is already a great deal of government-generated Adverse Health reactions statistical data from COVID-19 vaccines for a case to be made that employers who are making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory, vaccines that remain in clinical trials and are experimental, are incurring potential criminal and legal liability.
Link: https://canadianadvocacycentre.blogspot.com/2021/09/covid-19-vaccines-adverse-health.html
Informed Consent Laws Being Violated by Employers: Potential Civil and Criminal Negligence
➤ Any worker who is coerced into taking a COVID-19 vaccine, or any other vaccine to maintain their employment, or those who have been threatened with termination, is unable to provide true Informed Consent. This means workers' may have the ability to file civil lawsuits and criminal complaints against employers if they were to experience AHR's after taking a vaccine. This area of the law is going to be one of the most important to follow in the next few months.
Video: Don't Talk TV Episode 57: Mandatory Jab -- What Can You Do?
What To Do If Your Employer is Telling You that COVID-19 Vaccines Are Mandatory
➤ Consult an employment lawyer to find out what your legal rights are.
➤ Speak with your Union (if you have one) to find out what your legal rights are.
➤ Speak with your Family Doctor/GP about getting a medical exemption letter if you don't believe it is safe, or healthy for you to get the vaccine.
➤ Contact this organization to set up an appointment to get a Letter of Exemption for Masks and Vaccines for a FEE. Link: https://enableair.com/form
➤ If you don't agree with this, begin to look for another job ASAP. Any employer, industry, or sector that would mandate vaccines must be seen as one to be avoided. They are toxic bullies, and unsafe employers. Once they implement these kinds of mandates there is no stopping what other kinds of harmful and unsafe actions they will take toward workers.
➤ If you work in an industry that vaccines are being mandated in, such as Long-term care and Assisted Living, consider making a career change if you don't agree with this, or determine if you can live with the employers' requirements for not getting the vaccine. Ie. wearing a mask, or other PPE while on shift.
➤ If you are experiencing serious mental or physical health issues regarding the stress and anxiety related to your employer's demands and forced vaccinations, consider going on a medical (stress) leave and speak with your doctor about this if you have Short-term disability benefits and request they to complete the required paperwork.
➤ Apply for EI Sickness Benefits. Speak with your doctor about this and request they complete the required medical EI form.
Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-sickness.html
Apply here & find out what documents you need:
Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-sickness/apply.html
➤ Joint Occupational Health and Safety committee: Bring the issue of mandatory vaccination and Adverse health reactions/injuries forward to your JOHS committee at work. Request they send out a communication to ALL workers in the organization so workers are informed about:
1. What to do if they cannot get the vaccines due to specific health and safety issues and what accommodations the employer has set up to manage these situations.
2. How and where to report vaccine-related Adverse health reactions and injuries to the employer.
3. The names and contact information of worker representatives on the JOHS committee and shop stewards that workers can speak with about vaccines and vaccine-related Adverse health reactions and injuries.
4. How to report vaccine-related Adverse health reactions and injuries to your WCB as workplace injuries and disabilities.
5. The best ways to document Adverse health reactions injuries for injury reports and WCB claims.
➤ Consider letting your employer terminate your employment for exercising your LEGAL right to Informed Consent by delaying, or not getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Seek legal consultation whether you would be able to sue for Termination Without Cause, or other reasons. You may also be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) if you are terminated for this reason.
Links to Legal Notice of Liabilities
➤ Consider issuing a Notice of Liability (NOL) to your employer for forcing experimental vaccines on you as a condition of employment.
Take Action Canada: https://takeactioncanada.ca/know-your-vaccine-rights-get-letters-of-informed-consent/
Action4Canada: https://action4canada.com/employee-vaccine-notice-of-liability/
Informed Consent questions you should ask your employer BEFORE you get a COVID-19 vaccine
■ The article below contains a series of questions that workers can send to their employers to ensure that they are fully aware of how employers will handle the situation if workers get the vaccines that their employers are requesting, or requiring they get. Put these into an email and keep copies of all responses and engagement with the employer at home.
■ If you experience a vaccine injury, or serious Adverse Health reactions and cannot work, are temporarily, or permanently disabled, or die, you need to know what financial and other support will be there from your employer BEFORE you get the vaccine. If you have dependents, you also need to know what would happen to them if you were no longer there to support them financially.
Video: Your Rights to Decline a Vaccine in the Context of Employment (with Rocco Galati, Constitutional rights lawyer)
Constitutional Rights Centre. Youtube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHbMMf2c6KI
Extended Health Insurance Coverage Consultation
■ BEFORE you get a COVID-19 vaccine, call and speak with (and record the conversation) a representative for your Extended Health, and/or Private Insurance policy and plan to determine the following:
- Will Short-term or Long-term disability coverage be provided if I experience a work-related COVID-19 vaccine injury?
- Will life insurance be paid out to my loved ones/estate if I were to die from complications related to the COVID-19 vaccine injury/Adverse Health reactions?
- Is there anything else I need to know about how my/my employer's specific extended health and insurance policy works regarding COVID-19 vaccines?
Documentation of Employment Matters Related to Vaccines
■ If you were going to have to take legal action, or file a grievance, or WCB claim related to work-related Adverse health reaction/injuries from vaccines, you will need medical and other documentation to support your case/claim.
■ If you do a legal consultation, make sure to ask what documents you should collect and store if they were going to be needed in the future.
■ Document and get everything in writing regarding mandatory vaccines, or employer's policies on vaccines, especially if they are mandating them.
■ Save all employer emails, memos and communications about vaccine policies at home.
■ Ask questions via email and keep copies at home in a secure place.
■ Keep copies of all medical exemption and accommodation paperwork and Adverse health reaction/injury medical documents at home in a secure place.
■ Collect employer employment policies and employment hiring letters and other documentation at home in a secure place.
Copyright © 2021.Tracey Young/Canadian Advocacy Centre for Health, Safety and Justice. All Rights Reserved.
________________________________________________
#workerrights #occupationalhealth #occupationalsafety #OHS #occupationalhealthandsafety #workerscompensation #workerscompisaright #employmentlaw #employmentrights #Canada #cdnpoli #Elxn44 #WorkersCompensationInquiry
No comments:
Post a Comment