Alberta severance award for COVID vaccine non-compliance may be a first, lawyer says
By John Schofield | Law360 Canada
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In Brief
An Alberta court has ordered WestJet to pay over $65,000 in compensation to a former employee for wrongful dismissal. The ruling is being hailed as a landmark in Canadian employment law, with legal experts noting it sets a significant precedent by addressing gaps in how courts assess damages in such cases, particularly regarding employer obligations and employee protections.
Duong Yee, a remote accounting employee for 11 years, was dismissed in December 2021 after her religious exemption request (citing vaccine safety concerns intertwined with her beliefs) was denied under WestJet’s federally aligned vaccination policy.
Justice Aldo Argento found WestJet’s rejection of Yee’s exemption unreasonable, noting her religious objections were sincere and not overridden by safety concerns.
Termination was deemed excessive, as remote work posed no operational risk. The termination clause in her contract was invalid for failing statutory minimums.
This is the first case granting severance to a non-unionized remote employee terminated for vaccine refusal, diverging from prior rulings that invoked frustration of contract to deny payouts.
In a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Queen’s University law professor Bruce Pardy agreed that the decision may be the first in Canada to award severance to a non-unionized employee for being terminated (rather than being placed on indefinite leave) for refusing to be vaccinated.
Pardy said the most intriguing aspect of the decision was the court’s finding that Yee’s termination was unjustified, even absent the request for religious accommodation.
“There was no evidence that her refusal to vaccinate would have affected the operation of her department or WestJet’s other employees,” he wrote. “The Court concluded that ‘dismissal for cause was not a proportional response even if the Plaintiff should not have been granted a religious exemption.’ ”
The full text for this article is available at the publisher’s website here.
Image credit: Ken Fielding
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