Workplace vaccine mandates may have been “personally devastating” for some employees, but remained lawful, a New Brunswick labour arbitrator ruled..The decision came in the case of six utility workers suspended five months without pay after declining to show proof they were immunized, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“I accept they were faced with a difficult choice,” wrote arbitrator Michel Doucet..“They apparently held strong beliefs about the safety of the vaccine. It is not my role to question those beliefs.”.The six employees worked at a Point Lepreau nuclear plant operated by New Brunswick Power Corporation, a public utility. Records showed the workers’ union, Local 37 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of Fredericton, supported the mandate..“It is the best way to protect our members’ safety,” wrote the business manager for Local 37..Two of the six suspended employees subsequently resigned..“I understand the impact may be long lasting and personally devastating,” said Arbitrator Doucet..“To be deprived of an opportunity to work in the context of a personal decision about a medical procedure is a matter that properly commands careful consideration and respect,” wrote Doucet. “Yet balanced against this interest, there is the issue of the risk to the health of others.”.The employees argued there was no evidence of COVID infection at the nuclear plant and employees should have been offered an option of negative testing..“The reasons why they decided not to be vaccinated are personal,” wrote Doucet. “Furthermore, they add there is no evidence this decision put the health and safety of anybody at work in danger.”.However, the New Brunswick cabinet imposed its vaccine mandate on Oct. 6, 2021. New Brunswick Power, as a Crown corporation, had "no choice" but to comply, said the arbitrator..“I agree that an individual employee’s rights including the right to privacy, personal autonomy and bodily integrity are important and that such rights should not be easily abrogated or constrained by employers,” wrote Doucet. “However these rights are not absolute and there are circumstances where the rights of the collective outweigh the rights of individuals.”.Doucet said while there might not have been many cases of workplace transmission before the policy, that does not detract from the reasonableness of it..“The policy helped diminish the risks associated with the potential for transmission.”.New Brunswick lifted its vaccine mandate last March 18. The province had one of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates in the country, according to Public Health Agency of Canada figures..The New Brunswick infection rate was 10,695 per 100,000 people, lowest of all provinces except British Columbia (7,414 cases per 100,000), Newfoundland and Labrador (10,330) and Ontario (10,343). A total 762 New Brunswickers died of COVID-19. Neighbouring Québec had the highest death toll of 17,729.
