Canadian labor board facing 350+ religious-based grievances over COVID shot mandate
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canadian-labor-board-facing-350-religious-based-grievances-over-covid-shot-mandate/
The Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board have ended in-person hearings, as they attempt to get through years’ worth of religious-based grievance hearings over COVID vaccine mandates.
A Canadian federal labor board will be occupied for years going over grievance hearings from employees that alleged the COVID vaccine mandates discriminated against their religious beliefs.
The Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board has now ended in-person hearings over religious grievances relate to COVID vaccine mandates as the hundreds of already active cases will take years to wade through, according to a September 30 report by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“There are over 350 religious accommodation grievances currently active with the Board,” wrote Christopher Rootham, arbitrator with the Board. “Arbitration hearings dealing with similar policies in the private or broader public sector have tended to last two days, sometimes followed by written submissions.”
“Therefore scheduling an oral hearing for every religious accommodation case would amount to an impossible burden for the employer, for the bargaining agents and the Board,” he continued, explaining that future cases will be determined through written submissions.
The Employment Board’s decision comes after dismissing the first of hundreds of complaints from employees who had lost their jobs for following their consciences.
Beginning in November 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government mandated that a total of 275,983 employees from the RCMP, military and main federal departments provide proof of vaccination as a condition of employment. The available COVID-19 vaccines in Canada all have links to aborted fetal cell lines, and are thus considered morally impermissible by many Catholics and members of other religions.
Those who failed to do so risked dismissal or suspension without pay. While there were provisions for medical and religious exemptions, these were rarely granted. According to internal information, at the time of the mandates, 95 percent of employees had already received the COVID vaccines.
When the federal mandate was lifted in June 2022, 2,560 employees had been suspended without pay for refusing to show proof of vaccination.
According to a 2022 Inquiry of Ministry, the Trudeau government admitted that nearly three quarters, 74%, of applications for religious exemptions were rejected while 70% of medical exemptions were also rejected. Continue…