CHAUDHRI: Rod Phillips’ tropical treachery offers lessons for employees in 2021
Most of us have now heard about the sudden resignation of finance minister Rod Phillips following his two week trip to St. Barts over the holidays as COVID-ravaged Ontario entered a province-wide lockdown.
Ontario alone has seen a dramatic rise in daily COVID-19 cases — topping 3,000 in recent days — beyond what many modeling projections have suggested. Now is not the time for members of leadership to take vacations.
There are many great lessons for employees to take into 2021 from Phillips’ misadventures.
MAKE YOUR BOSS LOOK GOOD
Phillips threw the Premier into a deep end of boiling swampy water after ditching the province for warmer weather leaving Doug Ford to hold the bag and explain his finance minister’s absence. Ford was required to respond publicly and quickly demanded Phillips return home immediately. Many were quick to question what exactly Ford knew about the finance minister’s vacation plans that outed not only Phillips but left a stain on the Premier when he was forced to acknowledge his office was aware of Phillips’ fair weather adventures.
USE SOCIAL MEDIA WITH CAUTION
Social media has been the downfall of many employees; Phillips being its latest casualty. Creating social media posts that seemed like they were posted from Ontario and even from the living room of the finance minister’s home over the holidays was, at best, misleading and at worst, deliberately deceiving. While social media can boost profiles, popularity and reach, it can often be the Achilles heel of many employees, particularly when on vacation. Remember you carry the badge of your employer everywhere you go, outside of the 9-5, and particularly when you’re representing your organization online.
BIGGER TITLES BRING BIGGER RESPONSIBILITIES
As we sketch out our goals for 2021, many employees may be eyeing a promotion in the new year. Remember that promotions almost always bring with them higher levels of responsibility and expectations with your role. When Phillips took on the role of Ontario’s finance Minister — which included him spearheading the COVID relief plan in March as well as announcing a $45 billion action plan in November to be rolled out over the next three years to, among other things “lay the groundwork for Ontario’s recovery” — he signed on to see the province through economic challenges. Phillips has been integral to the province’s COVID response and while Christmas is generally a time for rest everywhere, that simply isn’t the case this year for our province’s highest elected officials.
EMBRACE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CREDO
Members of every level of provincial government warned and pleaded with Ontario residents to avoid non-essential travel in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. Even Phillips himself noted the “sacrifices” we all made over the holidays and to remember those who couldn’t even be home to enjoy a Christmas dinner. Unfortunately Phillips actions by heading to the Caribbean were anything but a personal sacrifice. When you can’t, or refuse to, align with the mission and mandate of your organization, expect to see swift backlash.
A DEMOTION IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RIGHT THE SHIP
While Phillips has been stripped of the prestigious Finance portfolio, he will carry on as MPP for Ajax. Surely Phillips will focus some time and attention to rehabilitating his damaged reputation, but he will have the opportunity with his public platform to regain trust, rebuild social and political capital, and, most importantly, serve his constituents.
On to your questions from this week:
Q. I own a company where I can’t have all my staff social distance. Because of that, I figure I have to know if my employees get vaccinated in order to bring everyone back into the workplace. What options do I have if an employee doesn’t want to get the COVID vaccine?
A. This area of the law is developing and the law may quickly change on the subject. The first step is to determine if the employee is asserting a human rights ground (like a religious belief or medical issue) as a basis for refusing the vaccine. If so, you have an obligation to accommodate the refusal to the point of undue hardship. This could mean providing the employee with PPE, allowing them to work from home, moving their workstation away from others or potentially providing them with a job protected leave. If there is no human rights ground asserted you may be able to proceed to terminate the employee, but I would suggest obtaining legal advice prior to doing so.
Q. My child will be remote learning the first week of January and I have to return to work. I have no child care. If I need to stay home does my employer have to accept that?
A. Yes, your employer would have to accommodate a request to stay home on the basis of family status. Make the request to stay home as soon as you can. However, you may not be paid for this time away unless you work with your employer to allow you to work remotely for this week.
Send your workplace question to schaudhri@lscslaw.com and it may be featured in a future column. Happy new year my friends!