CHAUDHRI: Ontario regulates new workplace screening requirements as COVID cases rise

Late last week, 62 employees at the Olymel pork-processing plant in Quebec tested positive for COVID-19.

One employee died just one day after testing positive.

While we still don’t know whether or not the employee’s death was linked to the COVID diagnosis, the staggering spread of the virus in one processing facility leaves a lot of us wondering when workplaces will truly be safe and not hotbeds of possible infection.

The Olymel employee union, representing plant employees is urging the processing plant to close temporarily claiming that sanitary measures at the plant have relaxed since the summertime.

Shockingly, a representative for Olymel confirmed that public health officials have not recommended a plant closure.

How do health officials weigh the impact of a closure of a plant that employs over 1000 employees against the disturbing spread of COVID-19 within its work force?

The recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Ontario has pushed the provincial government to amend the ‘Reopening Ontario Act” to require most employers to comply with any advice or recommendations issued by the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.

A recent recommendation has been issued for employers to implement a COVID-19 screening tool in every Ontario workplace. Because of the amendment to the Reopening Ontario Act, this recommendation is now mandatory for all Ontario employers to implement.

Employers are now required to screen all employees and essential visitors before they enter the workplace. As of Sept. 25, 2020, employers must ask each employee whether they are experiencing any of the typical COVID-19 symptoms like fever or chills, difficulty breathing, cough or sore throat. The screening must also query whether an employee has been out of the country in the last 14 days or if they have been exposed to someone with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19.

Notably, this screening must happen every time an employee enters the workplace. So, if you are an employee working Monday to Friday, you should be screened every single day before entering the workplace.

If an employee says ‘yes’ to any of the screening questions the employer is required to advise the employee not to enter the workplace and to send employees home to self-isolate and determine through their healthcare provider if they need to be tested for the virus.

If employees respond ‘no’ to each screening question, they can be permitted to enter the workplace.

While some may argue daily screening measure is overly burdensome for employers and can lead to massive work disruption, the new regulation leaves me wondering if screening processes were implemented sooner could the plight of the employees of Olymel been avoided?

Tips for employers to make COVID-19 screening efficient:

— Email employees the screening questions daily and have them respond before coming to work;

— Maintain records of your daily screenings in case your workplace experiences an outbreak;

— And if an employee is sent home, to try to find a way for them to perform work at home to remain productive and reduce work disruption.

I received a lot of feedback on my column last week on the downfall of a CFO following his uttering of a racial slur on the Georgetown Golf Course. Here are some of your comments and questions with my responses:

Q. This column seems to delight in itemizing those who have been punished for making racist comments. Is that where we are as a society? An employee with an addiction is provided with access to an EAP; is there a more constructive way to deal with those making racists comments?

A. An employee with an addiction is considered to have a disability within the meaning of the Human Rights Code and entitled to various accommodations by their employer. Racism is NOT a disability unless the unbecoming conduct itself was a function or symptom of an illness that deserves protection under the Code. Simply put, if this CFO can explain his behaviour by way of illness, you may then have a point. If not, an employer is not required to coach an employee out of racism or politically incorrect beliefs that are made public.

Q. If a white person and a Black person went for a job and the Black person got the job because of race, is that not a racist act of hiring? The last time I looked, white is a colour too.

A. Canada has a federal diversity plan called the Employment Equity Act; federal legislation was passed to make workplaces more equitable for women, persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities and Indigenous Peoples. Because it is federal, the Act only applies to federally regulated employers. Most employers are provincially regulated and cannot hire one person over the other solely on the basis of race. That said, it is a fact that minorities continue to experience discrimination in hiring in Canada, meaning there are still way too many people that are not getting interviews and jobs because of their race. That is likely the bigger issue here. For example, an Ontario study of the labour market found that racialized Ontarians continued to experience higher unemployment rates and racialized women were most likely to be in the lowest-paying occupations. These are not coincidences but more so a function of inequality that seems to still be alive and well

Email me at schaudhri@levittllp.com with your COVID-19 related workplace questions and your question may be featured in a future column. Until next week, stay safe my friends.