Judge upholds B.C. employer's mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy

A judge has sided with a company that imposed a mandatory COVID vaccination policy over the objections of one of its employees.

A B.C. judge has upheld an employer’s right to place an employee on an unpaid leave of absence for failing to comply with a mandatory COVID vaccination policy.

The decision of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather McNaughton was made in the case of a senior manager of a property management firm who had declined to get vaccinated.

In her lawsuit, Deepk Parmar alleged that she had been constructively dismissed from her employment with Tribe Management, claiming that the company had breached its contractual obligations by imposing the mandatory policy.

Parmar, an accounting professional who is not an anti-vaxxer, according to the judge, was concerned that the vaccines were prepared and distributed hastily and that there was limited data about their long-term efficacy and potential negative health implications.

The company, which has more than 200 employees, required all of its workers to be vaccinated by Nov. 24, 2021, and advised them if they failed to comply, they would be put on an unpaid leave of absence.

Parmar and one other employee refused to be vaccinated. She objected to the policy and was put on unpaid leave.

Described as an excellent employee, she emailed the company in January advising that she was resigning and considered herself dismissed. She filed the lawsuit the same day.

The company, noting that other employers were implementing mandatory vaccination policies, said in its policy that the health and safety of its employees, clients and communities was a priority and that it was committed to taking every reasonable precaution to protect people from COVID.

In her ruling on the case, the judge noted that the B.C. Supreme Court and other courts had taken judicial notice that COVID was a potentially deadly virus that is easily transmissible.

The judge said that she accepted that Parmar was faced with a difficult choice and apparently held strong beliefs about the safety of the vaccine, adding that it was not the court’s role to question those beliefs.

But in the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic in the winter of 2021-22, implementing a mandatory vaccination policy was a “reasonable” policy choice for employers, including Tribe, said the judge.

“Tribe’s (policy) was a reasonable and lawful response to the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic based on the information that was then available to it,” said McNaughton. “The policy, as drafted, allowed for both medical and religious exemptions, neither of which were then, or are now, asserted by Ms. Parmar.”

The policy reflected the prevailing approach at the time and struck the appropriate balance between Tribe’s business interests, the rights of its employees to a safe work environment, its clients’ interests and the interests of the residents in the properties it served, said the judge.

“It also satisfied its responsibility as a corporate citizen. At the same time, it ensured that individuals like Ms. Parmar could maintain a principled stance against vaccination without losing their employment by, instead, being put on a leave of absence.”

Parmar, who was earning about $100,000 a year in her job with the company, has since found employment at another company, according to the ruling.

Tribe has its head office in Vancouver, operates regional offices throughout B.C., and has satellite offices in Alberta and Ontario. It provides condominium management to strata boards and councils.

kfraser@postmedia.com