Employers can take comfort in what the law actually is.
This week, I will address whether breaching COVID-19 health and safety protocols is cause for dismissal.
With the pandemic dragging on seemingly interminably, many employees are increasingly lax in adhering to employers’ COVID-19 rules. Inertia, fatigue and resistance prevail too often.
Juxtapose this with their employers, at risk of massive fines and negligence actions if they do not enforce workplace safety. Do they then have the leeway to fire such employees with impunity?
One Entrust Adult Inc. employee attended work the day after returning from the United States, despite his Edmonton-based employer’s policy requiring a 14-day quarantine. When other workers became sick and tested positive for COVID-19, Alberta Health Services notified Entrust of these employees’ test results and advised that this employee had travelled to the U.S. when it learned that he had come to the office right after being in the U.S. Entrust