There are risks for HR in tackling employee requests related to human rights

With widespread vaccination, employers have been faced with the dilemma of whether they should require employees to get the COVID-19 shots for the workplace and, in some cases, to even stay employed.

There may be numerous reasons why someone holds out on getting vaccinated, but if they raise a human rights-related issue, the employer has to figure out how to handle it.

And it might make things worse if they try to handle it completely themselves, says Allan Stitt, president and CEO of Stitt Feld Handy Group and ADR Chambers.

“You need someone who has worked at the human rights commission and who knows how to assess the claims in order to make these determinations,” he says.

“It’s not that this is brain surgery, but it is something that you’re better off getting someone who has experience and expertise in making the decision rather than having the HR professionals think, ‘I’ll just try to assess that myself whether it’s valid’ without knowing what the proper standards are to apply, what the rules are, and what’s appropriate. So if somebody says, ‘I can’t take the vaccine for medical reasons,’ I don’t think HR people would say ‘I’ll pretend I’m the doctor and I’m going to assess whether that’s valid.’ It’s not their job.”

There have been mixed results when employers’ vaccination policies have been put to the legal test, an employment lawyer finds.

Small but vocal minority

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