City Staff Who Remain Unvaccinated To Be Terminated

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The City of Windsor says they have “taken the difficult but necessary next step” to confirm that all municipal employees who have not provided proof of vaccination or who have not been granted a medical or human rights accommodation will be terminated to ensure continued municipal service delivery.

This decision means there will be two key dates for undeclared/unvaccinated City staff to be aware of:

• January 4th, 2022, will be the first deadline to provide proof of a first COVID-19 vaccination.
• The second key date is February 1st, 2022. That date will be the deadline for staff to provide proof of a second COVID-19 vaccination.

On September 16th, 2021, City Council adopted a vaccination policy that required all staff to provide proof of vaccination status or to apply for and obtain a medical or human rights accommodation by November 15th, 2021 and have been suspended.

The city says that a significant amount of training and education activities was undertaken to help respond to any questions or concerns regarding vaccine efficacy and safety; however, about 7% or under 200 staff remain unvaccinated or undeclared.

“While we move towards the key vaccination dates above, remaining staff will be redeployed as needed, and temporary resources will be activated to ensure that the workload of individuals on unpaid leaves of absence will be completed. In the longer term, the corporation needs to ensure that all roles are filled to meet the service needs of residents and businesses without delay. Terminating those individuals who were non-compliant with the vaccination policy will allow City administration to hire new staff to fill the roles. New hires are required to comply with council’s vaccination policy as a condition of their employment,” a news release from the city said.

Non-compliance on the part of Transit Windsor staff has already led to an reduction in transit service, which takes effect November 22nd, 2021.

The city says other municipal services continue to be at risk for disruption, as fewer staff are now available to manage during the course of regular absences, illness, and scheduled holidays.

“Administration is committed to working with all of our staff to ensure a safe and healthy workplace,” said Jason Reynar, Chief Administrative Officer. “At the same time, we have a responsibility to plan for staffing each department’s needs, going forward. It is our hope that we can welcome back those impacted individuals as soon as possible, but operational requirements will force us to fill vacancies to ensure that we can deliver the high-quality public services that Windsor residents and businesses expect.”