Lior Samfiru on CTV News about vaccination wrongful dismissals

As booster shots for COVID-19 continue to be distributed across the country and cases of the Omicron variant disrupt businesses, employers have chosen to enforce vaccine mandates despite mounting legal liability.

Lior Samfiru, a Toronto employment lawyer and national co-founding partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP spoke with CTV News on the rise of terminations and wrongful dismissal suits as a result of vaccine policies.

“I can tell you, that right around nearly 20 years of practising law, I have never seen the same issue come up so often and so extensively in such a short period of time,” Samfiru states.

Samfiru goes on to explain that wrongful dismissals are not concerned with why an employee is let go, but rather with whether compensation is owed. “If an employee is let go without proper, or any, severance, that person is generally considered to have been wrongfully dismissed, regardless of the reason.”

The classification of the termination is also important, Samfiru reiterates. “Many employers, have taken the position that an employee’s refusal to get vaccinated is cause. It’s really about whether or not that employee is owed severance and it’s our view, and generally the legal view, that in most cases if an employee is let go because they’re not vaccinated that’s not cause,” says Samfiru.

Samfiru believes that employers, particularly those in the small business sector should consider their financial liabilities when implementing mandates. “If a person is at a higher risk of getting Omicron despite being fully vaccinated, it could call into question the justification for certain vaccine mandates,” Samfiru goes on to explain.

“I think a lot of employers are implementing these mandates as kind of knee-jerk reactions without actually considering their liability and what they may owe these employees, and it’s a problem.”