Civil servants who were fired without pay because they refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will not be compensated for eight months of salary loss now that vaccination orders have been suspended, the federal government has said in response to union demands. The Canadian Civil Service Alliance has stepped up its criticism of vaccine orders in recent months. However, the government says it is confident that vaccination requirements will stand the test of time. The PSAC, the country’s largest public sector union, argues that placing civil servants who could work remotely on unpaid leave was an abuse of administrative power and that the government should compensate these people. “They did not pose a threat to health and safety at work because they were not at work,” President Chris Aylward said Wednesday. The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) is also calling on Ottawa to reimburse the salaries of those on unpaid leave. “We will actively seek justice for our members,” CAPE President Greg Phillips said in a statement. The Liberals announced a series of federal vaccination orders just days before early elections began last summer. On Tuesday, they announced they would suspend most of them, retaining the right to reinstate orders if Ottawa deems it necessary. The change means that unvaccinated civil servants and RCMP members, who have been on unpaid leave since November, can return to work on June 20. As of May, 2,108 federal employees, less than 2 percent, were on unpaid leave due to vaccination rules, said Yentl Béliard-Joseph, a spokesman for Treasury Secretary Mona Fortier. Mr Ailward said Wednesday that the decision to suspend the orders reinforces the argument that the orders went beyond putting unvaccinated staff on unpaid leave. In response, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters in Parliament that the government would “not fully compensate” unvaccinated civil servants for their lost salaries. He made no further comment, but Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters he was confident the rules for ordering the vaccine were “solidly legal”. When vaccine orders were formalized in October, PSAC informed its members that there was a “high probability” that vaccination policies would meet a legal challenge and recommended that its members be vaccinated. And during the election, Mr. Aylward said his union supported vaccine demands, but was against the discipline of people who refused to shoot. Since then, PSAC, CAPE and the Professional Civil Service Institute of Canada (PIPSC) have lodged complaints against the policy. Before approving vaccine orders last year, Prime Minister Justin Trinto opposed them, calling them divisive. He reversed his position and the Liberal orders for vaccines dominated the debate in the election campaign and plagued the then Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, who refused to disclose the vaccination regime of his candidates and opposed a general order. The orders contributed to the blockades that blocked downtown Ottawa and led to border crossings for several weeks in February. On Wednesday, Mr O’Toole said the divisions that Mr Trudeau had warned of had become a reality, calling the orders “one of the most divisive and politically motivated federal policy actions in Canadian history”. In a social media post, he said the government had neglected its duty to host even though civil servants worked from home and believed “unions are likely to succeed in retroactive pay demands”. In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Wednesday, Ms Fortier said the government’s vaccination rules were a prerequisite for employment and therefore there was no need to accommodate officials who refused to be vaccinated and had no valid exemption. Ms Fortier is in the midst of contract talks with PSAC, which have been deadlocked since the union rejected the government’s proposed cost-of-living increase, which averaged 1.7 per cent a year for three years. . This proposal is well below inflation – which ran at an annual rate of 6.8 percent in April. The union filed for conciliation in May and is seeking an annual wage increase of 4.5 per cent, Mr Ailward said. The chairman of the Finance Council said costing all union demands, including changes to allowances, would amount to an annual increase of 14 percent. Mr Ailward did not dispute the figure, but said the union’s priority was to raise wages by 4.5 per cent a year and would consider rejecting some of the other demands. He said PSAC also wants to add the right to work from home to the collective agreement, so that members can work remotely, as long as it aligns with their job duties. Ms Fortier said any decisions about distance work should be the responsibility of the employer.
