Arbitrator Upholds Employer's Right To Impose Mandatory COVID Testing On Employees

Everyone in society has been affected in different ways by the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers in particular have faced difficult challenges and have been required, in many cases almost immediately, to make decisions that potentially impact employees' privacy and other rights while attempting to ensure that the health and safety of their employees, their clients and those that they provide services to, are adequately protected. A common question that has arisen over the last few months for employers is simply this – can they require their employees to take a COVID test as a condition of working in order to satisfy their employer they can safely attend the workplace?

A very recent labour arbitration decision  dated December 9, 2020, dealt squarely with this latter question. In Christian Labour Association of Canada v Caressant Care Nursing & Retirement Homes, an arbitration in which our firm represented Caressant Care, arbitrator Dana Randall was presented with the