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home / 世界杯决赛2022

council votes to remove vaccine mandate for city employees

roughly 80 employees were terminated as a result of the mandate. about half of them were temporary part-time workers.

by taylor campbell

nov 10 2022
read time 2 minute read
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windsor city hall is shown on sunday, may 23, 2021. dan janisse / windsor star
the city of windsor is rescinding its employee covid-19 vaccine mandate.
city council on wednesday voted to end a policy introduced 14 months ago that required all municipal workers to show proof of two covid-19 vaccines or obtain a valid accommodation under human rights legislation.
roughly 80 employees were terminated as a result of the mandate. about half of them were temporary part-time workers.
“this stems from a number of discussions our council has had with a number of different individuals in both the legal universe as well as public health,” said ward 9 coun. kieran mckenzie, who put forth the motion.
“based on the evidence and the understanding we have … the current vaccination policy requiring employees to be double vaxed is no longer effective or even necessary as a tool to keep people safe and free of covid.
the city adopted its covid-19 vaccination policy through a council resolution on sept. 16, 2021 in light of the changing landscape around the virus at the time. terminations began in january of 2022.
“the vaccination policies that this council has brought forward has always been brought forward with … the intention to protect both people in the community and in our workplace. through those processes, i think we’ve done the best that we could with the information that we’ve had,” mckenzie said.
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following the council meeting, dana paladino, the city’s executive director of human resources, told reporters the city will speak with its legal council and labour unions to determine next steps.
at the moment, the city is involved in litigation and arbitration over the vaccine policy. paladino said she couldn’t comment on the legal matter.
to determine whether the terminated workers will be asked to return, paladino said the city will “take a hard look” at what positions are available and what its legal obligations are.
“we want to have discussions with the unions that are affected first,” she said. ” we’ll obviously have to speak to our legal counsel and put our heads together as to how to move forward, but i think step one is notifying the unions of the decision.”
a lawsuit against the city by a group of terminated employees is seeking a number of declarations that the city’s policy was “unconstitutional” and a violation of charter rights. it’s also seeking general damages of $250,000 per plaintiff, punitive damages for each plaintiff of $1,000 per day since march 1, aggravated damages for mental distress amounting to $50,000 for each plaintiff, and “special damages” to be determined by each plaintiff.
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the city’s vaccine mandate covered the 3,000-strong workforce, including employees of windsor fire and rescue services.
the windsor police service suspended its own covid vaccine mandate in july. there were four employees on unpaid leave because they were either unvaccinated or did not disclose their vaccination status at the time.
tcampbell@postmedia.com
twitter.com/wstarcampbell
taylor campbell
taylor campbell

taylor campbell is a journalist and photographer with the windsor star currently covering city hall, municipal affairs, and more. she previously worked the police beat and extensively covered the covid-19 pandemic. a life-long windsor resident, campbell is a graduate of the university of windsor. you can reach her at tcampbell@postmedia.com or find her on twitter at @wstarcampbell.

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